It wasn’t another triumph in the league or in the Champions League, but Jürgen Klopp won’t soon forget the 2-1 win over Newcastle United on the fifth day of the Premier League. “We’ll remember it for years to come,” said the Liverpool manager after 20-year-old Fabio Carvalho threw in the last-second goal in the eighth minute of added time after the last corner – and Anfield trembled brought. And with only the second win of the season, the Reds prevented another setback, who are now fifth in the table with eight points.
“There’s the best way to win a football game, but I don’t need it every week,” admitted Klopp. Nevertheless, this success showed one thing: “I’m not 100 percent sure that they all believed in it to the end. But from now on we have to do it as we have shown again that it is possible.”
After the 9-0 win against Bournemouth, Liverpool didn’t do much this time. Former Dortmund player Alexander Isak even put Newcastle in front just before the break. Even before the deficit, his team’s game seemed a bit desperate, with no idea, Klopp complained.
After equalizing through Roberto Firmino (61st), the Reds pushed for the winning goal. But because the flow of the game was “constantly interrupted for some reason, there was no chance of getting going,” Klopp complained about the guests’ time game. The late winning goal was “the perfect answer” to that.
Newcastle’s coach Eddie Howe, on the other hand, did not want his team to see any unsportsmanlike play. “In the second half we wanted to slow down the game and they wanted to speed it up. The frustration of having two needs so opposed is natural,” he said.
After Carvalho’s goal, there were still turbulent scenes. Members of both benches had to be restrained, there were sarcastic gestures from the Liverpool side. TV footage shows a bottle being thrown at the home side from Newcastle’s bench. Players are said to have been involved for a short time, according to the Daily Mail: Klopp assistant Pep Lijnders and Joel Matip, Darwin Nunez and Newcastle’s Jason Tindall, Graeme Jones and Fabian Schar were involved.
There were no concrete statements from either club. Klopp and Howe shook hands after the game. When asked about it at the press conference, Klopp said he had not seen the situation. “I turned the other way to celebrate and when I turned back I was surprised,” he said. Howe also saw nothing to comment on.
