Newcastle United 0-6 Liverpool Match Report
Liverpool hit the headlines today in all the right ways after a difficult week for the club which saw their star striker Luis Suarez banned for 10 matches after last week’s infamous biting incident with Chelsea’s Ivanovic. Liverpool hit 6 against a poor Newcastle side with an early goal from Daniel Agger setting the theme for the day. A double from Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge, followed by a goal from the fit again Fabio Borini resulted in an emphatic score line for the visitors.
The Team
As predicted Brendan Rodgers replaced the suspended Luis Suarez with Daniel Sturridge in attack, the rest of the team remained the same with Reina in goal and Johnson, Agger, Carragher and Enrique the defence in front of him. Coutinho, Lucas, Gerrard, Henderson and Downing provided the midfield.
The Match
Liverpool started the match on the attack with Coutinho releasing Johnson down the right flank before the full-back crossed low only to be cleared behind behind for an early corner.
A minute later Agger headed the visitors into the lead after Coutinho looped a ball over the top of the Newcastle defence.
Newcastle seemed shell shocked from conceding the early goal and Liverpool grew in confidence from taking the early lead. Sturridge had the next effort but his effort was punched away by Elliot although the striker was flagged offside.
Not surprisingly Liverpool doubled their lead in the 17th minute after a brilliant move involving Sturridge and Coutinho before Sturridge unselfishly set up Henderson to pass into an empty goal.
Liverpool continued to dominate possession as Newcastle struggled to contain Liverpool’s attacking threat. But they should have pulled a goal back when Haidara crossed into the centre, but James Perch headed over from close range.
Newcastle had their best spell of the match prior to half-time but Liverpool defended comfortably to preserve their 2-0 lead at the break.
Newcastle started the second half a lot better than the first and Gouffran headed an effort straight at Reina to encourage the home support. But the hosts were hit by a sucker punch when Sturridge smashed in Liverpool’s third goal after a clever pass pass by Coutinho.
The match was now over as a contest but Newcastle had a shout for a penalty when Ben Arfa’s powerful shot cannoned off Lucas’s arm in the box, but the referee correctly waved play on.
Then on the hour mark Henderson squared for Sturridge to net his second of the day and Liverpool’s fourth as many Newcastle fans headed for the exit.
Steven Gerrard was replaced in the 73rd minute by Fabio Borini who was returning from injury and he made an instant impact by stabbing an effort past Elliot for his first Premiership goal for Liverpool.
2 minutes later Debuchy was sent off for a second yellow card after a rash challenge on Coutinho and Henderson curled in the resulting free-kick into the bottom corner making it 6-0 to the visitors.
Coutinho almost made it 7-0 but his long range effort was superbly saved onto the bar by Elliot. The rest of the match was played out like a training match as both teams appreciated the contest was over.
Summary
Suarez wasn’t missed too badly today as Liverpool scored 6 and Sturridge impressed by scoring 2 goals and the way he lead the line. But Coutinho was the stand out performer with several defence splitting passes and played a part in most of Liverpool’s goals. Newcastle were poor but you can only beat what’s in front of you and Liverpool played well. To score 6 goals away from home and without their star striker was tremendous and sets them up well for next week’s Merseyside derby.
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