Liverpool needed a 100th-minute winner from 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha to beat Newcastle United 3-2 after blowing a two-goal lead against 10 men in a Premier League thriller.
Ryan Gravenberch and longtime Newcastle target Hugo Ekitike struck for the English champions on Monday, either side of Anthony Gordon’s red card for a wild lunge on Virgil van Dijk.
But amid a frenzied atmosphere at St James’ Park, the Magpies battled back through Bruno Guimaraes and William Osula only to be denied by teenage sensation Ngumoha’s late strike.
Victory takes Liverpool level on maximum points from two games with Tottenham and title rivals Arsenal, who travel to Anfield on Sunday.
Newcastle remain without a win as they miss their want-away striker, Alexander Isak. Liverpool are the likely destination if Isak does leave before the transfer window closes in a week’s time.
Adding to the Magpies’ frustration is the fact that the Premier League champions also won the race to sign Ekitike, whom Newcastle had lined up as a potential Isak replacement.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot named new signings Ekitike and Florian Wirtz, alongside Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah, in an ultra-offensive lineup that saw Dominik Szoboszlai deputise as a makeshift right-back.
After failing to land a number of striker targets in the transfer market, Newcastle’s lack of a clinical number nine was exposed as they failed to break down 10-man Aston Villa in a 0-0 draw to begin their season last weekend.
It cost them again against Liverpool, during a dominant opening 30 minutes.
Roared on by a ferocious capacity crowd of more than 50,000, Newcastle penned Liverpool inside their own half without finding the final finish.
Instead, it was the visitors who took the lead completely against the run of play on 35 minutes.
Gravenberch took aim from well outside the area and powered an inch-perfect shot off the inside of the post.
It got even worse for Newcastle before the break, as Gordon took out his frustration by charging late into van Dijk and was dismissed after a VAR review showed his studs had raked down the Dutch defender’s Achilles.
Slot had not even taken his seat for the second half by the time his side doubled their lead 20 seconds in.
Ekitike made it two goals in as many Premier League games, with a composed side-footed finish from Cody Gakpo’s pass.
Newcastle’s sense of injustice only increased when Ibrahima Konate escaped a second yellow card moments later for a push on Harvey Barnes.
But minutes after being booked for taking his protests too far, a fired-up Guimaraes outmuscled Milos Kerkez to head in at the back post.
Liverpool struggled to make their man advantage count for the entirety of the second half, and were made to pay.
Despite his lack of forward options, Howe has been reluctant to field Osula, but the young Dane netted just his second Premier League goal when he bundled the ball beyond Alisson from a Dan Burn flick-on.
Newcastle continued to charge forward in search of a memorable winner, only to be picked out by Liverpool’s attacking quality.
Salah’s pass was brilliantly dummied by Szoboszlai to leave Ngumoha unmarked to curl calmly into the far corner, just days before his 17th birthday.
Liverpool captain van Dijk praised Ngumoha and his other teammates for the hard-fought win.
“I’m really really pleased for Rio. He has to keep working hard, to stay humble, and I’m sure he will do that,” he said after the game.
“Newcastle have the quality; it is always a difficult place to come, and it was today. I enjoy this type of atmosphere, but we could have made it easier. But we’ve got the three points, and we move on. There were many good things today.”
Meanwhile, Newcastle’s skipper Guimaraes said Gordon’s red card came out of overeagerness.
“I think he wanted to help too much. I think, sometimes, you are so excited to play, you make some mistakes,” Guimaraes told Sky Sports.
“It’s happened to me. We always try to give our best. There is a lot of noise outside that we cannot control.”
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