Dominik Szoboszlai converted a penalty in the 99th minute as Liverpool secured a dramatic 2 2 Premier League draw with Newcastle United at St James’ Park.
The result denied Mathias Jaissle a winning start in charge of Newcastle, while Andoni Iraola also collected a point from his first competitive fixture as Liverpool manager.
Newcastle made an impressive opening and took the lead after only five minutes. Anthony Elanga finished a rapid counter attack to score his first league goal in 40 appearances that did not end in defeat.
Liverpool struggled to create clear opportunities during much of the opening half, although Florian Wirtz came close to restoring parity.
The visitors finally found their breakthrough in the 55th minute. Cody Gakpo produced an excellent finish into the bottom left corner to make it 1 1.
Newcastle responded almost immediately. Substitute Joe Willock struck less than two minutes after entering the field, scoring just 176 seconds after Gakpo’s equaliser. Yoane Wissa played an important role in the move before Willock calmly completed the attack.
Wissa later had two excellent opportunities to extend Newcastle’s advantage. He narrowly failed to connect with a Lewis Hall delivery before Alisson denied him with another important save.
Those missed chances eventually proved costly.
Deep into added time, Hall brought down Víctor Muñoz inside the penalty area, handing Liverpool one final opportunity.
Former Newcastle striker Alexander Isak did not take responsibility from the spot. Instead, Szoboszlai stepped forward and powerfully converted to secure a share of the points.
The match also became the second highest scoring fixture in Premier League history, with only Liverpool against Tottenham producing more goals.
For Newcastle, it was another painful late setback against Liverpool after losing the corresponding fixture 3 2 last season through Rio Ngumoha’s late winner.
