Liverpool 4-1 Newcastle: Arne Slot’s side end their winless run with encouraging victory over Magpies
After thrashing Qarabag 6-0 in midweek to finish third in the Champions League table, the challenge for Liverpool was to bring that form into their domestic fixtures. And they started that nicely against Newcastle at Anfield, shaking off the blues after falling behind through an Anthony Gordon goal, to win 4-1 with a first-half brace from Hugo Ekitike followed by Florian Wirtz and Ibrahima Konate’s second-half strikes.
It was added misery for Eddie Howe and Newcastle that the turnaround that saw them lose yet again at Anfield was kickstarted by the man they had tried to sign last summer. Ekitike showed good movement to free himself up and poke in, after Wirtz had driven down the left side of the box and then squared the ball in a tight area.
Two minutes later the Frenchman received Milos Kerkez’s ball down the left flank, zoomed past the hesitant Malick Thiaw and then tucked the ball into the bottom right corner past Nick Pope.
Only a few minutes before, Newcastle had much reason to believe they could secure a first win at Liverpool since 1994. In their superb start Harvey Barnes pinged the post with a delightful freekick, before Joe Willock cantered down the left side and then sent a cross into the box, the ball reaching Gordon after it had initially been intercepted. The man who got sent off in the reverse fixture earlier in the season made up for that with a low shot that went through Kerkez’s legs and into the left corner.
After the break Liverpool continued to build on their momentum. Newcastle were still very much in the game but Alisson denied Barnes a chance to level, before Wirtz damaged their hopes of an equaliser when he initially played Mohamed Salah in and then received the return pass to dispatch neatly into the corner. The £116m signing is very much up on his feet now with six goals in his last ten games.
There was still a final touching moment before full time, when the returning Konate scored his first goal at Anfield to have something to celebrate after the loss of his father.
