Former Newcastle United striker and PL legend Alan Shearer has passed his verdict on the 4-2 victory of Liverpool against his former team Sunday night.
The Anfield giants reigned over Newcastle United on Monday night as they put forward 4 goals and conceded 2. The hosts dominated the visitors in classic LFC style. However, there were plenty of talking points throughout the game.
The first half ended goalless as neither team could find the net. Mohamed Salah got an opportunity to score a penalty, thanks to the foul committed upon Luis Diaz, but failed to convert.
But the second half was much more promising as 6 goals came in those 45 minutes. It was Mohamed Salah who opened the scoring. But Alexander Isak equalised 5 minutes later in the 54th minute.
But LFC gained the lead with goals from Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo in the 74th and 78th minutes, respectively. Although Sven Botman tried to decrease the gap with a headed goal in the 81st minute, it went in vain.
The final nail in the coffin came from Mohamed Salah, who again stepped up to take a penalty but, this time, thumped it past Martin Dubravka.
Alan Shearer on Liverpool vs Newcastle
The most controversial talking point of the match was when referee Anthony Taylor offered the second penalty to Liverpool. Diogo Jota was 1v1 with Dubravka in the dying minutes of the game and to stop the Portuguese from scoring, the Magpies goalkeeper extended his arm.
Although the striker tripped a little, his dive was more deliberate than natural. A Reds fan took this incident to Twitter(X) and commented, saying it should not have been a penalty. Supporting this statement, the former Newcastle star tweeted,
“Yep. You battered Newcastle and should have scored more goals but clear dive for that pen.”
Even though the last penalty was unjustified, Newcastle’s performance was abysmal. So, there is no argument that the wrong penalty decision led to their loss.
Liverpool were lucky to get the penalty but were defensively poor throughout. This should be the area of focus for the winter transfer window.
An ardent football fan and a proud Red. I take immense pleasure in analyzing the intricacies of the game.