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Close from Gakpo!
52 min: Good play from Wirtz, who knits together a few passes in midfield, drawing Newcastle bodies to him before releasing Kerkez. The Liverpool left-back finds Gakpo, who curls a long-range juuuuuust over the Newcastle bar. That was close. Hornicek was nowhere near it, and it that was a yard lower, it was a goal.
50 min: Ngumoha, given a rare chance in the final third to run at Hall, instead tries to play a pass to the underlapping Frimpong, but instead passes the ball straight out for a Newcastle goal-kick. Eeeeeeesh.
48 min: Wissa shows another deft touch to get away from Gravenberch but the Liverpool midfielder recovers and hooks a foot around the Newcastle forward to make an outstanding tackle.
46 min: Liverpool immediately fashion a corner. They look like they have had a rollicking at half-time. The corner is flicked on at the near post towards Isak at the far … but Hornicek punches clear. That was a crucial intervention with the former Newcastle striker lurking.
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
The teams are back out. No changes from either side.
Half-time reading: our snazzy men’s transfer interactive, which has news and details of all deals from Europe’s top five leagues, including Curtis Jones’ £25.7m move from Liverpool to Internazionale.
Elsewhere in the Premier League: a chastening afternoon for Aston Villa on the south coast, beaten 4-0 by Brighton.
Half-time: Newcastle United 1-0 Liverpool
Matthias Jaissle’s first half in charge of Newcastle has been a triumph.
45 min: One minute added on.
44 min: Liverpool look rather devoid of ideas. There are hopeful crosses, and shots from distance but this isn’t a fluid, attacking Liverpool side that was promised when Iraola joined. Credit must go to Newcastle for making it difficult. The home side have not stopped running, pressing at every opportunity.
42 min: Wissa trips Gravenberch in midfield and is a tad lucky to escape a second yellow card. It wasn’t a bad foul, but he did prevent a Liverpool counter-attack. Wissa receives what surely must be a final warning from Stuart Attwell. It remains 11 versus 11. For now.
40 min: Liverpool have had 10 shots to Newcastle’s five but have only tested Hornicek on one occasion. Much rests for Liverpool on Wirtz and Isak, and both have been quiet in this first 40 minutes.
38 min: The first lull of the game. My fingers hurt.
36 min: “There’ll be a lot of cliches trotted out today about Kevin Keegan, and one of them will no doubt be that he ‘transcended his sport and his nationality’, but looking back, that’s actually true,” emails Justin Kavanagh. “As a schoolboy in Ireland, and definitely NOT a Liverpool fan, I really admired his tenacity and his attitude. I once broke my leg in France, and when the ambulance guys heard me speaking English, the first words out of their mouth was… ‘ahhh, Keveen Keegeen.’ Thanks for the memories Mr. Keegan.”
34 min: Frimpong is a good player, possibly not a right back, but his end product is often left wanting and butchers a Liverpool counter-attack here with a dismal attempt at a cross. Liverpool attackers were lining up at the far post but Frimpong effectively passed it to the nearest Newcastle player.
32 min: Newcastle have a promising free-kick for the latter foul, but Osula mimicks Szoboszlai’s effort by booting it straight into the wall. I’m surprised that Osula – given the No 10 shirt this season, by the way, is on free-kicks for Newcastle.
30 min: Bad news for Liverpool, as both full-backs – Kerkez and Frimpong – are booked within a minute of each other. Elanga will be keen to test Kerkez again, now that the Liverpool left-back is on a yellow.
28 min: Should flag that Wissa was booked for the foul on Szoboszlai that led to the Liverpool free-kick.
26 min: Szoboszlai lines up a long-range free-kick, 30 yards out. This is his sort of range, but Liverpool’s star midfielder pings his shot straight into the Newcastle wall, which stayed strong and in unison.
24 min: Hall leaves Isak in a heap with a robust but reward challenge, which the Newcastle fans celebrate like a goal. The home side break forward, Wissa turning neatly in midfield, before the DR Congo forward feeds Osula with a remarkable trivela pass that Quaresma would have been proud of. Osula bursts onto the through ball but Van Dijk and Alisson just about do enough to prevent Newcastle’s striker from getting a clean shot on goal. The Liverpool captain very nearly put past his own goalkeeper, actually, but Alisson was alert.
22 min: As if to prove my point, Kerkez overlaps Isak and gets free to the byline. The Hungarian has time to look up and zings a low cross towards Wirtz, but Hornicek reads it well to intercept, parrying clear, before Dedic hacks it away.
20 min: Signs of Liverpool life, though. The visitors are now enjoying almost all of the ball and are looking dangerous.
Huge save from Hornicek!
18 min: Fabulous save by Lukas Hornicek, Newcastle’s new keeper, to deny Wirtz! Kerkez had fizzed a hopeful low cross in from the left, Thiaw struggled with his clearance, and Wirtz pounced inside the area, pinging a finish through a crowd of bodies towards the far corner. Hornicek flung himself to his left and just tipped the shot around the corner! A save made all the better by the fact that it awkwardly bounced just before Hornicek got a big left hand to it.
16 min: It’s been a really good start for Newcastle, but four players have particularly caught the eye. Elanga, obviously, but Steur and Hall have looked really tidy and Wissa has looked really busy in that No 10 role.
14 min: Looking back at that goal, Liverpool didn’t do too much wrong, in truth. Kerkez was well positioned and worked his nuts off to try and track Elanga. He simply couldn’t move his legs fast enough.
12 min: After a frenetic five-ish minutes after the goal, Liverpool finally put their foot on the ball and calm things down with a bit of possession.
9 min: Newcastle have a new-found tactic: hoof it over the top to Elanga. The winger looks as though he has Kerkez on toast.
7 min: I’m not sure who the fastest player in the Premier League is these days – Micky van de Ven?! – but Elanga has to be up there. Kerkez is no slouch but he simply could not keep up with the Newcastle winger as he got on the overlap around Osula. Credit to Elanga for the finish, too, it was assured considering he was moving at such speed.
GOAL! Newcastle 1-0 Liverpool (Elanga 5)
Cooooooorrrrrrrr, what a goal! Newcastle hit Liverpool on a devastating counter attack! Newcastle clumsily clear their lines but the ball bounces to Osula, who has room to turn and run at the Liverpool defence. Osula drives down the middle but has Elanga screaming past him to the right. It’s a simple through ball, but well executed, as Elanga streams away from the trailing Liverpool defence, takes a steady touch and arrows a finish low into the far corner! Lift-off at St James’ Park!
4 min: The Newcastle fans are riding Isak hard, booing his every touch and rejoicing as Hall dispossesses the Swede as the Liverpool striker cuts inside.
2 min: A flowing Liverpool counter-attack starts with an excellent pass from Jacquet into midfield. Wirtz carries it forward, exchanges passes with Gakpo, and the German unleashes a fierce shot on the edge of Newcastle’s box, well blocked.
PEEEEEEEEEP!
We are underway at St James’ Park. A new season for Newcastle and Liverpol begins with a kick-off for the visitors, taken by Isak. He is unceremoniously booed by the home faithful.
The tributes to Keegan continue, to the tune of David Bowie’s Heroes, just before the two teams come out onto the tunnel. Newcastle in their abomination barcode of a home shirt – how have they somehow butchered those splendid stripes?! – and Liverpool in a rather smarter red home strip.
There is a minute of applause for Keegan, raucously observed. Twice voted the greatest footballer on the planet, Keegan was a lot more to Newcastle United and Liverpool FC.
“It’s very rare that deaths of famous people affect me, but Keegan was an exception: his passing stayed with me for days afterwards,” emails Chris Paraskevas. “It is difficult to surmise his importance to Newcastle’s history: I only witnessed his last ‘reign’ at the club, when he carried himself with his characteristic dignity and honesty during the Mike Ashley era, so the best parts of his legacy has been passed down or re-lived. His passing has only added to the massive sense of change / foreboding in the offseason, with Eddie Howe’s departure and the club’s plans to ‘be the best in the world by 2030’ revised to ‘best in the world by 3020’ (paraphrasing). When Pierre-Emile Højbjerg is turning you down, you know it’s going to be a rough season.”
Sky Sports have just shown a montage on Kevin Keegan and banners and tifos are now being shown around St James’ Park. I mentioned it earlier but there is a very moving mosaic of shirts on the pitch inside the centre circle – made up of jerseys left outside St James’ Park after the news of his death broke last month. Former players have flown in from all around the globe for his game, including Faustino Asprilla from Colombia.
I regret to inform you that I have gone. Legend is a term that is thrown around a lot, but King Kev was the definition of that word. RIP.
Delving into the Liverpool XI, there are two eye-catching selections.
Firstly, Rio Ngumoha: the 17-year-old looks like he is lining up on the right wing, with Cody Gakpo on the left. After Mo Salah’s departure, Liverpool have struggled to replace him during the transfer window, failing in their attempts to sign PSG’s Bradley Barcola and Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh (the Reds had a £50m bid for the latter turned down on Thursday). There is a real opportunity for Ngumoha to lay down a marker here and claim that spot for his own.
Secondly, Jérémy Jacquet has been chosen to partner Virgil van Dijk in central defence, despite the recent loan arrival of Ronald Araújo from Barcelona. Jacquet was really impressive in pre-season after his £60m move from Rennes was confirmed this summer. There are high hopes for the 20-year-old but many a promising young centre-back has come unstuck on his debut.
Newcastle’s new head coach, Matthias Jaissle, speaks to Sky Sports:
It’s a transition phase. It’s a huge challenge. There will be some activities – hopefully – in the transfer market in the next week. But we are going to go for it [today], we will go all in. As soon as I saw Lewis Miley on the pitch, I was falling in love. He had a brilliant training week, we have to see if he’s ready for 90 minutes.
Here is a taste of some of the tributes to Kevin Keegan in and around St James’ Park.
Trailing 1-0 with six minutes to go in normal time, Manchester City have just beaten Bournemouth 2-1. Join Emillia Hawkins for live reaction.
There has been a goal at the Etihad to set up a tense finish between Manchester City and Bournemouth. Join our MBM for the latest.
Newcastle’s top-four chance creators from last season all have left the club. The club made well over £200m from the sales of Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães but it’s interesting that summer arrivals Bazoumana Touré (signed for £43m from Hoffenheim) and Aladji Bamba (signed for £30m from Monaco) are not in Jaissle’s XI today. Where are the goals going to come from?
Here is Louise Taylor’s preview. And yes, it is on Alexander Isak.
The teams!
Newcastle (4-2-3-1): Hornicek; Dedic, Thiaw, Botman, Hall; Miley, Steur; Barnes, Wissa, Elanga; Osula.
Subs: Jaouen, Schar, Bamba, Toure, Murphy, Woltemade, Willock, Ramsey, Shahar.
Liverpool: Alisson; Frimpong, Jacquet, van Dijk, Kerkez; Szoboszlai, Gravenberch; Ngumoha, Wirtz, Gakpo; Isak.
Subs: Mamardashvili, Endo, Mac Allister, Tsimikas, Munoz, Araujo, Nyoni, McConnell, Koumas.
Referee: Stuart Attwell (Warwickshire)
Almost a year ago to the day, Newcastle’s first home match last season was also against Liverpool. With Alexander Isak holed up in his Northumberland mansion 10 miles south of St James Park’ as he attempted to force through a move to Liverpool, Newcastle conceded a 100th-minute winner, scored expertly by the Reds’ teenage star Rio Ngumoha.
A lot will depend on if Liverpool do any more business for wide players in this window (and how much Iraola trusts new signing Víctor Muñoz, who looks very promising) but this could possibly be a huge season for Ngumoha. The English winger has it all, he just needs the opportunities to prove it.
Preamble
If there is a match between Newcastle and Liverpool, the mind instantly goes to Kevin Keegan. The man was a genius and King Kev will be rightly honoured today at St James’ Park as the two clubs meet. Tifos, banners and a 52,000-card salute is planned, while a mosaic has been designed to fit inside the centre circle, made up of shirts that were left in tribute by Newcastle supporters at the ground following the news of his death last month. RIP Keegan.
If talk of a club legend has dominated the historical discourse off the pitch, it is a much less popular, less permed individual that is a more defining figure for both clubs on this particular match.
Alexander Isak’s departure from Newcastle on deadline day last summer for a British-record fee was a huge factor in the north-east club’s poor campaign last time out that ultimately led to the departure of Eddie Howe. Isak’s sale was seen as a marker of ambition, or lack thereof, and that has permeated the club’s boardroom, the mindset of the fans and possibly Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães, all of whom have departed for pastures new. Newcastle are now a club firmly in transition under their new manager, Matthias Jaissle. Anything from Europe to relegation is on the cards.
If Newcastle are still trying to fill the void left by Isak, Liverpool seem still unsure how to best use the striker. Just as we do not know what Liverpool are capable of under Andoni Iraola, the jury is also out on Isak, who struggled for form and fitness in the last 12 months. With Hugo Ekitike still sidelined and Mohamed Salah departed, there is much pressure on the Swede for goals. Isak has the talent but there is still a question of whether he can produce the same output after his injury and in a team that is less tailored to the striker’s exact needs. Liverpool claim that they are still title contenders but they still seem short of elite squad depth in a merciless league.
The Premier League is back, and for these two clubs, this match should be an emotive and intriguing ride.
Kick-off: 4.30pm BST.
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