Liverpool claimed their first victory in the Premier League this year with a scintillating attacking display against Newcastle United. Here’s how it happened…
Anfield © James Peace
The setup
Following Liverpool’s victory in Europe on Wednesday, manager Arne Slot named two changes to the team which started on the south coast against the Cherries last weekend.
With both Jeremie Frimpong and Joe Gomez sidelined with injuries, Dominik Szoboszlai was deployed as a right-back. The Hungarian started next to Ibrahima Konate, who had missed the last three fixtures due to the tragic passing of his father.
The Reds looked to secure their first Premier League victory since the turn of the new year, and the second over Newcastle this season, having won the reverse fixture thanks to an injury-time winner from youngster Rio Ngumoha. Meanwhile, Newcastle faced the daunting task of claiming triumph at Anfield for the first time in 30 years.
The first 45
The first real goalscoring opportunity of the match fell to Newcastle’s Harvey Barnes, who curled a fine strike towards goal after Lewis Hall laid the ball off to him from a free-kick. Alisson was able to parry it away, however, before Konate hooked it clear.
Just ten minutes later the visitors made the early pressure count. Willock’s attempted pass into Barnes was poked away by Mac Allister but only as far as Gordon, who drove a low effort through the legs of Milos Kerkez and past Alisson into the far corner.
However, Newcastle’s lead would last just five minutes before parity was restored. Salah’s deflected cross fell to the feet of Gravenberch, who nicely cushioned the ball for Florian Wirtz to run onto.
The German still had plenty to do, dancing in between multiple defenders and playing it across the box for Ekitike, who tapped it past Pope from close range.
In the blink of an eye, the Frenchman had his second. Kerkez received a quick qoal-kick and sent a long ball down the field to Ekitike, who beat Thiaw for pace and drove towards goal. Even though the angle was against him, the Frenchman produced a beautiful finish with the outside of his foot, driving it past Pope into the far corner.
The brace bumped Ekitike’s goal tally up to fifteen for the season across all competitions, with eight of those coming in the Premier League.
After the interval
Liverpool started the second half strongly with Ekitike having another really good opportunity to turn two into three.
He quickly raced in behind Dan Burn, who misjudged the bounce of the ball and let the Frenchman in. However, Ekitike was unable to convert on the angle as he dragged his effort wide of the post.
After his brilliant assist to Eikitke for the first goal, Wirtz would give the Reds some breathing room just before the seventieth minute mark.
The German won possession inside the visitors half and drove forward towards the edge of the penalty area, where he played it wide to Salah.
The Egyptian drew two Newcastle players with him before squaring the ball back to Wirtz, who carefully placed his effort into the far corner beyond the reach of Pope.
The German is going from strength to strength, and has now registered five goals and two assists in his last nine outings in all competitions.
As Liverpool closed in on the three points, a late gift from Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope meant Konate rolled a fourth goal in for the Reds.
Szoboszlai’s curling corner delivery was too much for Pope, who fumbled the ball. Konate was the fastest to react and used the side of his foot to poke the ball home as it slowly rolled in over the line.
The whole team celebrated with the Frenchman, who looked visibly emotional after scoring on his first appearance since leaving the team for bereavement reasons.
With that, the referee blew the whistle for full-time and Liverpool finally secured their first Premier League win in 2026.
The aftermath
Newcastle once again leave L4 with nothing, with Liverpool remaining unbeaten in their last 18 premier league outings against the Magpies (13 wins and 5 draws).
A certain Gini Wijnaldum was amongst the goals the last time Newcastle managed to take all three points against LFC, back in 2015.
Despite taking the lead early on, Eddie Howe’s men seemed to offer much less of a fight in their search for a way back into the game after finding themselves trailing at the half-time interval.
Liverpool now occupy fifth position in the league with a huge fixture against Manchester City coming in a week’s time.
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