Dominik Szoboszlai stood over the ball in the 99th minute at St James’ Park with Liverpool’s season, and Andoni Iraola’s first competitive afternoon in charge, reduced to a single kick. He sent Lukas Hornicek the wrong way. Newcastle 2-2 Liverpool — a point salvaged, a defeat avoided, and very little else to celebrate.
Anthony Elanga had put Newcastle ahead inside five minutes. Cody Gakpo levelled on 55. Joe Willock restored the lead within two minutes of coming off the bench. Then, deep into a nine-minute stoppage period, Lewis Hall caught substitute Víctor Muñoz on the thigh with a trailing knee, VAR confirmed the contact, and Szoboszlai — Liverpool’s penalty taker now that Mohamed Salah is at Trabzonspor — held his nerve in front of 52,630 largely hostile supporters.
A chaotic afternoon Keegan would have recognised
The fixture was played in the shadow of Kevin Keegan’s death at 75. Both sets of players wore commemorative shirts, and the Gallowgate End assembled a ‘KEEGAN 7’ mosaic before kick-off. What followed — four goals, two lead changes, a 99th-minute penalty — was fitting for a man who never once managed a quiet football match.
It was also a game between two managers taking their first Premier League steps at these clubs. Matthias Jaissle, appointed by Newcastle this summer, fielded a notably young midfield in Steur and Miley and set his side up to counter. It worked almost immediately: Elanga pounced on slack Liverpool possession and finished inside five minutes. Willock’s second, a long-range strike seconds after his introduction, came from Yoane Wissa’s best work in a Newcastle shirt.
“Hard luck, I would say,” Jaissle said afterwards. “I’m really, really happy with the performance after such a short amount of time. The guys were fighting till the end.”
Iraola was more measured. “We probably started the worst way,” he admitted, before adding: “I don’t think we deserved to lose the game and I value the effort from the players. The players coming from the bench gave us energy.”
Control without conversion
The statistics back Iraola’s claim and simultaneously indict his team. Liverpool had 61% of the ball, 27 shots to Newcastle’s 13, and an expected goals figure of 2.73 against 1.43. They completed 370 passes to 223 and entered the final third 78 times compared with Newcastle’s 35. On that evidence this should not have needed a 99th-minute penalty.
But territory is not the problem Iraola was hired to solve. Liverpool finished fifth last season, 25 points behind Arsenal, and conceded 53 goals — the defensive collapse that cost Arne Slot his job. Both goals here came from precisely the pattern that defined that campaign: Liverpool’s full-backs, Jeremy Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, pushed high, the space behind them unguarded, and a quick transition punishing it.
Iraola’s Bournemouth side led the Premier League for fast-break shots last season with 128. He knows exactly what a counter-attack looks like. On Sunday he was on the receiving end of two, in the first competitive fixture of a defence rebuilt around £60m signing Jérémy Jacquet after Ibrahima Konaté left for Real Madrid and Andy Robertson’s contract expired.
Isak’s return, and the shape of the season
Alexander Isak was booed during the warm-up and never stopped being booed. The £130m striker, returning to the club he left in acrimony, was largely anonymous — and Wissa, signed in part to replace him, was the game’s most impressive forward. Isak managed just four goals in 22 appearances in an injury-wrecked debut season at Anfield; a quiet afternoon at St James’ Park does nothing to shift the narrative around him.
The wider Liverpool attack remains a work in progress. Florian Wirtz operated as a number ten, the role Iraola has publicly earmarked for him, with 19-year-old Rio Ngumoha on the right — the position Salah occupied for nine years and which Liverpool have deliberately chosen not to fill with a like-for-like signing. Muñoz, the 23-year-old Spain international brought in as wide cover, won the penalty that rescued the point within minutes of his debut.
There are consolations. The draw extends Liverpool’s unbeaten run at St James’ Park to 10 matches, and a side that spent last season folding under pressure found a way to avoid losing. Iraola’s methods will take time; the World Cup-compressed pre-season gave him little of it.
Relief, then, rather than reassurance. Liverpool created enough to win comfortably and defended poorly enough to lose. Both of those things will need to change before the title conversation includes them again.
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Sources: [Sky Sports](https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/13567632/newcastle-2-2-liverpool-dominik-szoboszlai-snatches-last-minute-leveller-from-penalty-spot-to-rescue-andoni-iraola), [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49703061/liverpool-score-stoppage-penalty-draw-newcastle), [NBC Sports](https://www.nbcsports.com/soccer/live/newcastle-vs-liverpool-live-updates-score-goals-highlights-stats-2026-august-23), [This Is Anfield](https://www.thisisanfield.com/2026/08/newcastle-2-2-liverpool-match-report-premier-league-2026-iraola/), [Sofascore](https://www.sofascore.com/news/liverpool-draw-late-at-newcastle-key-stats)
Word count: ~740. One note: Sky logged Willock’s goal at 58′, ESPN at 57′ — I used 57′.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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