Last gasp Carvalho breaks Newcastle hearts
Liverpool 2 Newcastle United 1, 31st August 2022
For a game in which there was very little in the way of meritorious football, when the beautiful game did in fact awake from its slumbers we were treated to two fantastic team goals, an equalising goal from Liverpool that swept the entire length of the field in 9 or 10 seconds whilst barely leaving the Anfield turf, before with time having run out, on both the game and on a struggling Liverpool, Fabio Carvalho smashed home a winning goal from nowhere that was more than a little unlucky on visitors Newcastle United. In a cliché ridden “bruising encounter” that was bitty, niggly, physical and stop-start, it was both cruel on the visitors as well a huge slice of poetic justice for the Reds as Newcastle’s time wasting tactics ensured the extra minutes beyond the 5 sanctioned minutes of injury time that led to Carvalho’s 98th minute winner, and which ultimately broke their footballing hearts in a game the black and white shirted visitors were well worthy of their 1–0 half-time lead, arguably in control leading up to the Reds equaliser and hardly hanging on for a drawn point as the game entered added time to added time. Newcastle were well worthy of the point they had as the game entered the 98th minute but left with nothing.
Thus is football and perhaps a little Portuguese poetic justice too.
It’s precisely 12.03pm on the afternoon after the night before and I’ve just announced to the madhouse of Twitter that I’m in the middle of an article that I’m going to love and that no-one in the entirety of God’s footballing earth is ever going to read. The two edged Sword of Damocles if you will, the weight of knowing no-one will read this rambling nonsense against the weightlessness and freedom of entertaining myself, if no-one else. I was going to describe Newcastle’s play last night as weightless and with a real freedom (until they tired and reverted to the time wasting shenanigans that forced the unfeasibly brown and deliciously suntanned referee Andre Marriner to play a wonderful version of “Next Goal Wins”) but then it struck me, this season isn’t going to be a “messy” one for Liverpool as I’ve previously suggested, it’s going to be a “Sword of Damocles” season, where there’s a poor performance or impending draw or a scrappy route through the initial stages of the Champions League and where once there was the inevitability of a brilliant win, there’s currently an air of impending doom. At 1–1 and with 97 minutes already on the game clock, it was 2 points dropped in a game the Reds had only created one first half goal scoring chance of any merit and only really played, really played, for the 10 minutes surrounding Roberto Firmino’s superb equaliser. But then the beautifully suntanned referee rightly added further time to the injury time wasted by the timewasting chicanery of Newcastle, and Philippe Coutinho’s lookalike and would be younger brother smashed home a winning goal that in this albeit fledgling season, means absolutely everything to Liverpool.
I initially felt sorry for Newcastle for the footballing reasons we’ll come to shortly, but then I remembered their faintly ridiculous time wasting tactics (at every possible opportunity) and that Alan Pardew was once their Manager, and as he continues to haunt my every pleasant dream from the year 1990, that empathy soon vanished. The “Chocolate Man” would have been livid had he been manager last night and I doubt he would have taken the footballing heartbreak as well and as stoically as current manager Eddie Howe. For this really was heartbreak for the visitors last night. To be well worthy of at least a point to then see it snatched away in the 98th minute by a 20 year wunderkind smashing a ball high into your net from close range was both rough justice for the “Magpies” and more than a little poetic justice for the Reds from Liverpool with a very different bird upon their footballing chests.
Unchanged from the weekend’s 9–0 demolition of Bournemouth, the Reds created one real goal scoring chance of note in a first half almost exclusively dictated by their visitors from Newcastle. Liverpool were slow, sloppy and ponderous and the spell was only broken only once in the first half as arguably their three best players all night combined to create the one and only goal scoring chance of a barren and bereft half of football. “Man of the Match” and mightily impressive (again) Harvey Elliott fed Roberto Firmino (central hub and brilliant performance in the “False 9” role) and the Brazilian’s incisive pass found the never say die spirit of his Colombian team-mate Luis Diaz who screwed his shot over the bar when he could and should have scored. That, however, was the sum total of a first half of football whereby Liverpool never got started, they were without rhythm, didn’t “tick” or look cohesive and a million miles from their dominating performance against Eddie Howe’s previous employers Bournemouth on Saturday.
Eddie Howe’s current team, much like their Liverpudlian hosts, were shorn of many starting XI regulars (both regular central defenders and the very impressive trio of Callum Wilson, Bruno Guimaraes and Allan Saint-Maximin) but for an hour it didn’t appear as though this hampered his current team of “Black and Whites” and through the greyhound athleticism of their new big money signing Alexander Isak, they were well worthy of their precious 1–0 lead. The Swedish International also doubled the lead for his new team early in the second half before a linesman correctly flagged him for offside. This was on 54 minutes and 9 minutes into a second half of a game that their hosts had still not started in earnest. The lithe Swedish striker also had the game’s first goal scoring chance on 14 minutes after a great team move cut open the Liverpool midfield, exposing a retreating defence. Isak’s shot went high and wide, but new team-mate Ryan Fraser almost immediately fizzed a shot narrowly over Alisson Becker’s crossbar before Miguel Almiron typified the Newcastle first half approach of endeavour and quick attacking transitions to release Isak again and with Newcastle controlling the game, Fabinho sloppily fouled Joe Willock on the edge of the Reds penalty area, necessitating a safe if smart save from his goalkeeper Alisson Becker from the fiercely struck resultant free-kick from Kieran Trippier.
Half an hour had passed and Newcastle were comfortable if not particularly threatening and the Reds simply hadn’t started. On 38 minutes, Newcastle grabbed a deserved lead they’d hold onto until the half-time break.
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s usual cross field raking pass went awry or was perhaps in keeping with the sloppiness of his team’s first half performance. Either way, Joe Willock snaffled the loose pass, released the impressive energy again of Miguel Almiron who’s pass inside was cleverly nudged into the athletic stride of Alexander Isak and he smashed the ball high and wide of a despairing Alisson Becker in the Liverpool goal. Newcastle were deservedly in the lead, a lead they’d easily hold on to until the half-time break and a lead they could have doubled had it not been for the correct adjudication of offside from a linesman’s flag. The hour mark was reached with their lead intact before Liverpool finally forced a save from visiting goalkeeper Nick Pope after a smart move started by captain Jordan Henderson finally saw a bouncing loose ball fall to the Reds stand out performer Harvey Elliott who shimmied away from a desperate challenge on the edge of the penalty area before drilling a hard and low drive that forced a smart diving save from Pope.
Then 10 seconds of mercurial football in the 61st minute turned the entire nature of the game on its head.
Alisson Becker’s quick underarm throw was immediately controlled and swept forward by Fabinho to Harvey Elliott who took the pass in his running stride, transitioning the game at speed and releasing Mo Salah on the right wing. Elliott’s clever pass was the only time in this 10 second period whereby the ball left the Anfield turf and only temporarily as Salah cut in and released a perfect pass for the onrushing Roberto Firmino who calmly side footed a precision shot into the far corner of the Newcastle net. 10 seconds, from a goalkeeper’s underarm throw to the ball nestling in the Newcastle net and to continue the theme of time, this was the second chance created in a minute since the turn of the hour mark as well as the start of a 5 minute spell of intense pressure on the Newcastle goal as the Reds had finally awoken to the challenge before them. Newcastle didn’t buckle but they were clearly running on empty and using every time wasting tactic they could muster. Minutes 65–80 were largely uneventful, mired in substitutions, gamesmanship and the running down of time and whilst half chances fell to Luis Diaz and Fabinho (two each), Nick Pope was rarely called upon to make a save in the Newcastle goal. But 3 minutes past the allotted 5 of injury time saw the Reds grab all 3 precious points.
As with Bournemouth on Saturday, another relentless attacking piece of pressure led to a corner that led to a goal and tonight, a priceless one. Mo Salah’s run and shot almost caught out a tired Newcastle defence but with his shot resulting in a corner, his participation tonight was still not done. Joe Gomez climbed to win the hopeful central corner (and away from a catch from Nick Pope that would have ended the game) and with Salah jumping for the resulting loose ball and panic all around him in both red and black and white shirts, substitute Fabio Carvalho smashed a close in volley into the roof of the Newcastle net and broke their footballing hearts with the very last kick of the game.
Did Newcastle deserve more, at least a point?
Absolutely.
Did Newcastle’s negative and ridiculous time wasting rightly cost them?
Absolutely.
Do I still despise Alan Pardew for reducing me to floods of tears in 1990?
Absolutely!
So welcome, to the “Sword of Damocles” season. Forever one minute from doom. Forever one minute from glory. Or indeed just ten seconds of footballing perfection, a footballing wunderkind or two and a Brazilian with the smile to go with 101 goals for the club who adore him. Whether or not this season will see the Mighty Reds of Liverpool meeting triumph and disaster and treating those imposters just the same or not, it could be a big season for Roberto Firmino as well as a huge poke in the eye for the detractors who fail to see the importance of his role in the team.
Harvey Elliott was the game’s shining light and yet another impressive performance from someone so young. Imagine a bulkier, broader 22/23 year old as opposed to the waspish 19 year old who’s willing to lose a ball in the process of trying to win a game? If his name was, for arguments sake, “Pedri” and he played for, say, Barcelona, there’d be trees sacrificed for the mountainous pages in his name, and like his team-mate (and Philippe Coutinho look-a-like) Fabio Carvalho, they’re both desperate to play in this team’s starting XI.
Good on yer kids!
Thanks for reading. A plethora of similarly rambling nonsense can be found within my Liverpool FC archives or please see the three most recently published articles on their exploits below:
