Liverpool 2 Newcastle 1: Carvalho hits dramatic winner with last kick of game as Reds come from behind after Isak goal
IN the grand tradition of this famous fixture, Liverpool seized a last-gasp winner to hold off the rumblings of Newcastle’s Geordie Arabia revolution.
Fabio Carvalho, the whizkid signed from Fulham this summer, scored a spectacular close-range winner from a 98th-minute corner to break the hearts of Newcastle.
Eddie Howe’s £60million club-record signing Alexander Isak had thumped the Toon into a half-time lead and was denied a classy second by a tight offside call.
Burt after Saturday’s 9-0 trouncing of Bournemouth, Jurgen Klopp’s side have fought back form a miserable start to the season with back-to-back home wins.
For the opening hour, though, it had all looked so different as Swedish beanpole Isak scored an emphatic opener – just hours after his work-permit had been rubber-stamped by the Home Office following his switch from Real Sociedad.
And while defeat was a real punch in the guts for Eddie Howe, he will have been heartened by such a fighting display against elite opposition, with three key attacking players out injured for the visitors.
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Liverpool may have equalled the Premier League scoring record with Saturday’s shooting-fish-in-a-barrel exercise against Bournemouth – and the Reds also have a lengthy injury list of their own.
But they struggled here against a side determined to shake the old order with their influx of Middle Eastern oil cash.
After the Saudis made a relatively modest start in the transfer market, the signing of Isak felt like the start of the heavy artillery bombardment on the status of the Big Six.
But it is one thing to have stupid money to spend, quite another to spend in wisely.
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And Newcastle, under Howe and technical director Dan Ashworth, appear to be doing just that.
This fixture always evokes memories of those classic 4-3 Anfield clashes against Kevin Keegan’s cavalier side in the late 90s.
In the most famous of those encounters, Stan Collymore netted a late winner – this time Carvalho, who turned 20 on Tuesday, did the honours.
But despite their big spending, Howe’s side are built on a serious defence, better balanced than those ‘great entertainers’ who never lifted a trophy.
With Callum Wilson, Allan Saint-Maximin and Bruno Guimaraes all out injured, it was little surprise that Howe rushed Isak into action as soon as his paperwork was completed.
Even less of a shock was Klopp naming an unchanged starting line-up, following their 9-0 Bournemouth demolition job.
Yet despite being under-strength, the Toon were menacing on the break.
Isak skied one into the Anfield Road, after adeptly creating the space to shoot and then Ryan Fraser, swivelled smartly on the edge of the box but also cleared the crossbar.
Liverpool were intent on getting down the sides of Newcastle’s back four but the visitors defended stoutly.
It took 34 minutes for the Reds to carve open the United defence – Firmino’s cunning through-ball fed Luis Diaz, who rounded Nick Pope but shot wildly from an angle.
But much of Liverpool’s build-up play was plodding and predictable – a theme this season, outside of Saturday’s drubbing.
It was clear Klopp was frustrated when he started doing his conkers at fourth official David Coote – insisting that ref Andre Marriner clamp down header on Newcastle’s meaty challenges.
And then the German’s mood plunged still further when Newcastle seized the lead on 38 minutes.
Trent Alexander-Arnold attempted a Hollywood pass – as he tends to do – and found only Joelinton.
Newcastle probed down the right and Sean Longstaff picked the lock with a pass which foxed Joe Gomez and allowed Isak to advance and hammer into the roof of the net.
Klopp then flew into an apoplectic rage when Mo Salah appeared to elbow Matt Targett in the face and the Newcastle full-back had the temerity to fall down.
It looked as if the home dressing-room was going to be torched at half-time, with the Anfield boss breathing fire.
Within nine minutes of the restart, Isak thought he had a second when he sprinted on to a through-ball, beat a sliding Andy Robertson and slipped past Gomez to thump past Alisson – yet he was denied by a fag-paper offside call.
That lucky escape seemed to rattle Liverpool into life – and they began to look more like their old selves.
Harvey Elliott tested Pope with a low drive and then, dead on the hour, Liverpool were level.
Salah teased his full-back and cut back for Firmino to side-foot low into the far corner.
Isak was soon withdrawn, replaced by Chris Wood, but his debut had been a resounding individual success.
The Magpies were pinned back deep in their own half but Liverpool’s finishing was consistently wayward until that late corner.
Marriner had added five minutes of injury-time but it was not until the eighth that Carvalho swivelled and shot home after a manic scramble in the six-yard box.