Newcastle 2-2 Liverpool: a penalty in the 99th minute

St James' Park had spent ninety-nine minutes believing it was going to win. When the referee pointed to the spot deep into stoppage time, Newcastle were 2-1 up and had spent forty-two minutes protecting a lead they had built in two.

Dominik Szoboszlai converted and the game finished 2-2. Liverpool took a point from a match in which they had twenty-seven attempts; Newcastle lost two in the final breath.

A perfect start for the hosts

Anthony Elanga scored in the 5th minute. A goal that early against Liverpool forces the visitors to play the rest of the game against the current, and that is exactly what happened: from then on Liverpool had the ball and Newcastle had the plan.

The next fifty minutes were a siege conducted in small doses. Liverpool finished with 60.8% possession and twenty-seven shots, an enormous figure, but only seven found the target. Newcastle defended in a tight block, ran into the space and accepted the wear.

The cost of that plan showed in the bookings. Yoane Wissa was cautioned on 25 and Lewis Miley on 34; Liverpool answered with two almost simultaneous yellows on 30, for Miloš Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong.

Two minutes that looked decisive

The equaliser arrived on 55 through Cody Gakpo, and lasted exactly one hundred and twenty seconds. On 57, Joe Willock put Newcastle back in front.

That goal deserves a pause: Willock came off the bench and made it 2-1. It is the kind of contribution that changes a game and that tends to get buried when the final score does not follow.

From the 57th minute the script was predictable and Newcastle accepted it: drop deep, hold on, manage. Jacob Ramsey was booked on 65 and Jacob Murphy on 79, both with the side already committed to defending the lead.

Nine added minutes

The closing stretch was an accumulation of signals. Virgil van Dijk was booked on 90. On 90+3 so was Lukáš Horníček, the Newcastle goalkeeper, in the sort of caution that nearly always comes from managing the clock.

And in the 90+9th minute, with the game stretched to an unusual length, came the penalty. Szoboszlai scored it and Liverpool drew a match they had been losing twice.

Nine added minutes are not an arbitrary number: they are the sum of five home bookings, three away ones, four goals and the interruptions imposed by a game in which one side is protecting a one-goal lead.

What the numbers say

Liverpool had twenty-seven shots and put seven on target. Newcastle had thirteen and hit four. The hosts scored twice from four efforts on target; the visitors needed twenty-seven attempts to score two.

Efficiency sat with Newcastle all afternoon, and that is precisely why the final equaliser stings more: they played the match they needed to play, with the resources they had, and still did not take three points.

The 52,630 inside St James' Park watched their team lead for fifty-seven of the ninety-nine minutes the game lasted.

What comes next

Newcastle take a point and the feeling that they deserved three. They also take the confirmation that their plan works against Liverpool: going ahead twice against this opponent is not an accident.

Liverpool begin by picking up something away from home after twice falling behind, which is what sides with big ambitions tend to do — although twenty-seven shots for two goals is a figure their coaching staff will want corrected quickly.

The only draw of the round

The 2-2 at St James' Park was the only shared result of the entire opening round. The other nine fixtures produced a winner: seven home wins and two away wins, on a weekend of thirty goals at an average of three per game.

That detail changes how the point reads. In a round where almost everybody won or lost, Newcastle were the only side left halfway, and they got there from the most uncomfortable position available: leading until the ninety-ninth minute.

The reverse is worth noting too. Of the ten matches, this was the only one in which a team went ahead twice and did not take three points, which says as much about Newcastle's plan as it does about Liverpool's persistence.

With twenty-seven attempts, Liverpool also posted the highest shot count of the round without converting it into a win. It is the kind of match remembered in March for the point rather than for the volume.

The bookings tell the other half of the story. Newcastle collected five yellows and Liverpool three, eight in all, and the last two home cautions arrived on 79 and on 90+3, by which point the side was playing for nothing except the clock. Defending a one-goal lead against opponents who shoot twenty-seven times carries that price.

"Twice in front, forty-two minutes defending the lead and a penalty in the ninety-ninth minute. Newcastle lost two points when the match no longer fitted on the clock."