Liverpool salvaged a 1-1 draw at St James’ Park on Sunday after a 99th-minute penalty from Dominik Szoboszlai. The match, the first of the new Premier League season, saw the Reds lose an early lead and then claw back a point in the final minute.
Newcastle opened the scoring five minutes in when Anthony Elanga’s burst past Alisson allowed Yoane Wissa to slot a pass to Joe Willock, who curled the ball past the Liverpool goalkeeper for a 2-1 advantage. The visitors held a narrow lead for most of the game, with Liverpool’s only goal coming from a speculative drive by Cody Gakpo that found the far corner of the net.
The Reds were level again when Gakpo’s shot beat the keeper, but Wissa struck again, this time passing to Willock for a second goal that made the score 2-1. A late mistake by Lewis Hall, who clipped Victor Munoz in the area, left the ball in the path of Szoboszlai, who stepped up to take a penalty at the 99th minute.
Szoboszlai fired the ball into the top corner, giving Liverpool a point and a draw that seemed almost miraculous. “If I am honest, we should have won. But that's football,” he said after full-time. “We have to be aware of that and we need to take care in the next game. We will never give up.”
Liverpool’s new manager, Andoni Iraola, praised the team’s resilience. “It’s probably not the result you want when you come in before the game but we definitely deserve this point and even more,” he said. “The team has never given up and we’ve recovered one point and probably the taste is better because we score in the last minute.”
The result leaves Liverpool in ninth place after the first round of fixtures. Their next match is a home game against Nottingham Forest, scheduled for Saturday’s early kick-off. The Reds will look to build on the late comeback and secure a win in the next outing.
The match was a showcase of both teams’ attacking intent, with neither side able to dominate. Liverpool’s ability to grind out a point in the dying minutes, however, will be a point of pride for the club as they begin a new era under Iraola.
The 99th-minute penalty by Szoboszlai was the decisive moment, turning a potential defeat into a hard-earned draw that keeps Liverpool in the upper half of the table after just one game.
