Newcastle United surrendered a 1-0 lead against 10-man Liverpool to lose 2-1 after Darwin Nunez’s late brace.
Eddie Howe named an unchanged starting XI from last weekend’s defeat at Manchester City and the opening day win over Aston Villa as the Magpies head coach resisted the temptation to start Harvey Barnes over Anthony Gordon.
And it was a decision that paid off 25 minutes in when Gordon pounced on Trent Alexander-Arnold‘s mistake before slotting the ball past Alisson. Moments later, the game switched further in United’s favour when Virgil van Dijk was shown a straight red card for a last-man challenge on Alexander Isak.
Newcastle played an hour with a man advantage but self impolded in the closing stages. Nunez, a 77th-minute substitute, scored twice inside the remaining 10 minutes. Here’s our Newcastle United player ratings from the loss.
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1. Nick Pope - 6
Flapped at a couple of early crosses and looked nervy at times. Didn’t have too many saves to make but could do nothing about Nunez’s brace.
2. Kieran Trippier - 7
Sloppy in possession early on but settled as the game progressed. Carried the ball forward well and brought an air of calmness to the defence but it self imploded.
3. Fabian Schar - 7
Composed and comfortable in possession, but you’d expected nothing less from the Swiss, even if on the losing side.
4. Sven Botman - 6
Mis-placed a couple of passes in the first-half. Excellent last-ditch challenge to deny Salah on 67 minutes but let Nunez go for Liverpool’s equaliser. A rare mistake.