April 30, (THEWILL) – With a 1-0 victory over Newcastle United, Liverpool went straight to the top of the Premier League table in the Saturday afternoon EPL fixture.
The visitors won, thanks to a goal from Naby Keita midway through the first half, however the margin of victory might have been, and should have been, considerably wider.
The victory lifted Liverpool over title rivals Manchester City – albeit for only a few hours, as Pep Guardiola’s side face Leeds United later on Saturday.
Eddie Howe will be disappointed after the result and how they could have taken something from the game, but he will also know that Jurgen Klopp’s quadruple chasers were simply too excellent for them on the day and deserved to win.
In the first ten minutes, Liverpool enjoyed a strong start, with Diogo Jota, Sadio Mane, and Virgil van Dijk all missing chances.Â
Newcastle failed to heed the warning signs and fell behind after just 20 minutes. Andre Marriner correctly allowed Liverpool to continue after James Milner beat Fabian Schar to a challenge in midfield.Â
The Swiss goalkeeper and the majority of the capacity crowd wanted the foul, but Andre Marriner correctly allowed Liverpool to continue. The ball broke to Keita on the right side of the box, where he glided inside and beat Martin Dubravka to score.
For the rest of the half, Liverpool dominated, and they should have doubled their lead 10 minutes before the break. Keita fed Luis Diaz in a sweeping counter-attack, and his no-look pass for Mane was brilliant, but the Senegalese star could only fire at Dubravka.
After a wonderful cross from Jordan Henderson, Dubravka was called into action once more to tip over a powerful header from Jota. Milner, a former Newcastle player, was on the edge of the box when the subsequent corner came to him, but he could only volley wide when he should have at least hit the target.
Before halftime, Miguel Almiron did put the ball in the net, but just as he wheeled away in celebration, the flag was properly raised, and that was as good as it got for the home side in the first 45 minutes.
Newcastle improved in the second half, but it was still difficult to break down Liverpool’s midfield and defence.
On the hour, Liverpool had another fantastic chance to increase their advantage when Joe Gomez did well down the right to find Mane in the area, but the striker blasted wide from just ten yards out.
Klopp then switched Mane off replaced him with Mohamed Salah, who put more intensity into their play. Not long after, Jota had a fantastic chance to score shortly when he broke away from his marker but could only shoot at Dubravka, who was becoming increasingly busy.
Newcastle was still in the game with the score at 1-0, and they had a fantastic chance when Allan Saint-Maximin broke and attempted to feed substitute Chris Wood in on goal, but the New Zealander drifted offside at the key moment.
At the other end, Dubravka proceeded to deny Liverpool, first Jota, then Diaz, as it showed to both sides that the game was far from over.
On 87 minutes, Bruno Guimaraes had a wonderful chance to equalise for Newcastle when he picked up the ball on the edge of the box, but he could only locate his international teammate Alisson, and that proved to be Newcastle’s final chance to save the game as Liverpool won.
Liverpool’s quest for a quadruple will continue on Tuesday when they travel to Villarreal for the second leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final.
It does not get any easier for Newcastle, who are against Manchester City in their next Premier League match on Sunday.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
