LFC Toronto Match Review: Liverpool FC 2-1 Newcastle

Earlier in 2022, Newcastle United’s majority owner Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) launched the LIV Golf Tour. Even if LIV refers to the Roman numeral for 54, we cannot help wondering if PIF staff are now having a dim view of those 3 letters with the manner their football team lost at Anfield on Wednesday.

When we thought we had seen it all against Newcastle in the “lightning does strike twice” games of 4-3 in 1996 and 1997, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool team managed to add its own imprint of drama to the collection of memorable matches against the Geordies.

While Liverpool’s winning goal came in the 90th minute in each of those matches a quarter of a century ago, Fabio Carvalho won it in the 98th minute in this latest installment after the fourth official had previously flashed 5 minutes of added time for the second half.

Ref Andre Marriner added more time on top of the added time because Newcastle indulged in time-wasting antics. This allowed Carvalho to prolong his 20 th birthday celebrations four days after scoring his first Liverpool goal. What an unforgettable week the birthday boy is having.

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe must have surely done his homework, pondering on his old club Bournemouth getting torn apart at Anfield last weekend. Despite the absence of two key players Allan Saint-Maximin and Callum Wilson, his tactics worked it must be said.

Newcastle contained Liverpool well, frustrated the home side and as the match progressed, we inevitably started to wonder how the Reds would break down this Newcastle side.

Just like a nagging itch that stubbornly refuses to go away, the opposition scored first once again. It’s now frustratingly the 8th time in the last 9 league matches.

Newcastle new signing Alexander Isak neatly drilled the ball into the roof of the net in the 38 th minute after Liverpool’s defensive play was quite absent during this Newcastle action.

Isak again put the ball at the back of the net in the 54th minute but thankfully for Liverpool, he was offside during the buildup. At that point, doubts were starting to creep up as to whether the home side would get anything from this game.

Incredibly, it took one hour of play to see Liverpool’s first shot on target. But in the greater scheme of things, that was just academic as it happened to be the long-awaited equalizer.

Harvey Elliot pinged the ball forward on the right wing to Mo Salah who then passed it to Bobby Firmino. The Brazilian swept it first time into the opposite bottom corner to start his second century of Liverpool goals… Si Senor!!

Credit to Elliot for his visionary pass. In fact, the youngster worked tirelessly throughout this match, never giving up on his attempts to create something. If the score had ended 1-1, the talk of the game would have certainly been on his Energizer Bunny performance instead of the dramatic last-gasp winner of Carvalho.

Even if the match hero status was not bestowed to him, Elliot clearly demonstrated how much this win meant to him as he planted a big kiss on Carvalho’s head right in front of the TV camera while the Portuguese was being interviewed after the final whistle.

Unsurprisingly, Newcastle were less enthralled by the way the share of the spoils had slipped from their hands.

When Stan Collymore scored the last gasp winner against Newcastle in April 1996, we were provided with one of the iconic images of the Premier League: Magpies then manager Kevin Keegan slumped behind the advertising board as his title challenge was evaporating.

This time, the reaction of the Newcastle camp was less defeatist. They jumped to their feet for a shouting match with their Liverpool counterparts, probably aggrieved that the referee had allowed what they saw as an inordinate amount of added time.

For our part, we do hope that after missing in action during the initial games of the season, Liverpool’s Mentality Monsters have just sprung back to their feet.

Mike Chung.
YNWA