NEWCASTLE, England — Jurgen Klopp gave credit to Darwin Nunez after the frustrated striker came off the bench to score twice as 10-man Liverpool came from behind to beat Newcastle United 2-1 in a pulsating English Premier League clash.
The 24-year-old Uruguayan has been out of favour so far this season, but his late brace against the Magpies showcased the best of his qualities and he will get more chances, Klopp told Sky Sports.
“He was obviously fired up about not playing, not starting, and he put all the energy into those two shots … it was a super-mature performance and two top-class goals,” a delighted Klopp said as he reflected on what he described as one of the best victories of his career.
Liverpool went behind midway through the first half and then had captain Virgil van Dijk sent off for a foul on Alexander Isak, and when forward Luis Diaz was replaced by centre back Joe Gomez it looked like Liverpool were battening down the hatches.
However, Klopp decided to have one last throw of the dice, and Nunez responded with two late goals to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for the Reds, boosting his chances of more playing time.
“It’s early in the season, you need to find stability. We need to find a formation you need to get results, and then we play every three days and everybody will play, there’s no doubt about that,” Klopp explained.
“Definitely, a striker scores two goals and you can see he gets a smile on his face, and rightly so. But for the team, it was super-important that they got something like that, you need these kinds of things to grow together,” Klopp added according to Reuters.
Back-to-back single-goal defeats to Manchester City and Liverpool will leave Newcastle playing catch-up in the league, and manager Eddie Howe said it will be a challenge to pick his players up again.
“There was a lot of good, we should have put the game to bed and that is probably the thing we are all kicking ourselves with,” Howe told Sky Sports.
“There will be a lot of emotion. For us, we’ve had three really tough opening games, won one and lost two. The two we lost were lost by the narrowest of margins, and they were against the best two teams in the Premier League,” he added.
Man City seal 2-1 win at Sheffield
Rodri came up with another big goal for Manchester City, scoring in the 88th minute to secure the champions a 2-1 win at Sheffield United and a third straight victory to open its Premier League title defense.
After Erling Haaland responded to missing a first-half penalty by breaking the deadlock in the 63rd, it looked like City would be dropping points in a game it dominated when a mistake by captain Kyle Walker gifted Jayden Bogle an unlikely 85th-minute equalizer.
Walker made amends by winning the ball back on the right wing and crossing to Phil Foden, whose miscontrol went straight to Rodri and the midfielder made no mistake with a fierce left-foot shot into the top corner.
Rodri was the scorer of City’s winner in the Champions League final last season and has already scored twice this campaign, having netted at Burnley in the opening round.
City is the only team with a maximum of nine points so far.
City, and specifically Haaland, endured a frustrating afternoon at Bramall Lane until the Norway striker’s opener, with a physical Sheffield United team defending deep and ruggedly.
A 36th-minute penalty – awarded for a handball against John Egan that blocked Julian Alvarez´s cut-back – was City´s first real chance and Haaland wasted it by dragging it against the post, with goalkeeper Wes Foderingham diving the other way.
The game continued to be one-sided in the second half, with Haaland shooting wide from Walker´s cross and then seeing a deft chip clawed away by Foderingham in the 61st.
City manager Pep Guardiola – watching the match in Barcelona as he recovers from back surgery – might have been feeling uncomfortable at that stage but Haaland delivered in the end like he usually does.
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