Newcastle vs Liverpool LIVE: Premier League result, final score and reaction as Naby Keita nets winner
Newcastle 0-1 Liverpool: Follow reaction as the Reds edge past the Magpies to leapfrog Man City atop the Premier League table
Naby Keita ensured Liverpool’s quadruple hopes remain very much alive as he fired them to victory at in-form Newcastle to keep up the pressure on Premier League title rivals Manchester City.
Keita’s assured first-half finish was enough to claim a 1-0 win at St James’ Park on a day when Reds manager Jurgen Klopp was able to rest Trent Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Thiago Alcantara and Mohamed Salah from his startling line-up ahead of Tuesday’s decisive Champions League semi-final trip to Villarreal.
Liverpool might - and probably should - have won more comfortably in front of a boisterous crowd of 52,281 as they held the upper hand for much of a contest which saw the Magpies’ hopes of a fifth successive league win and a seventh on the trot at home wilt in the face of almost constant pressure.
Eddie Howe’s men were never able to build up the kind of head of steam which has eased them clear of the relegation battle, perhaps a reminder of how far they have to go before they can once again compete with English football’s best on a sustained basis.
Follow all the reaction from a crucial Reds win at St James’ Park below:
Newcastle 0-1 Liverpool
86 mins: Wood challenges Thiago for the ball in the air but commits a foul in the process. Liverpool taking the sting out of it.
Newcastle 0-1 Liverpool
85 mins: SUB! Josh Murphy is on for Emil Krafth for the last five minutes of this one. Eddie Howe rolling the dice with an attacking change.
Newcastle 0-1 Liverpool
84 mins: Newcastle have the ball back but Liverpool’s shape is utterly imperious and the hosts have to go back to their defenders before attempting to build once more.
Eventually Keita wins the ball back and Liverpool break. Keita finds Diaz on the left and he beats Krafth before trying to sneak one in the near post but it hits the side-netting.
Newcastle 0-1 Liverpool
82 mins: Thiago feeds a nice pass into Jota who turns delightfully inside the area but Burn then fights back at him and clears the danger.
Thiago already pulling the strings just minutes after coming on. Exactly the sort of player you want to see out a match like this.
Newcastle 0-1 Liverpool
81 mins: 10 minutes for Newcastle to find a surprise equaliser. 10 minutes until Liverpool will return to the top of the Premier League table.
Newcastle 0-1 Liverpool
80 mins: Another good save from Dubravka! The game is becoming stretched and that is likely to play into the visitors’ hands.
Jota drifts in from the right and tries his luck with a left-footed strike that Dubravka is equal to at his near post.
Newcastle 0-1 Liverpool
78 mins: James Milner goes off and is replaced by Thiago. Not bad.
Newcastle 0-1 Liverpool
78 mins: CHANCE! Oh, it was offside again but Chris Wood didn’t know.
Saint-Maximin bursts in between the lines and slides a ball in for Wood. Wood takes a touch and fires into the chest of Alisson. Then the flag goes up.
The New Zealander was half a yard offside. Just as well, he should have buried that.
Newcastle 0-1 Liverpool
76 mins: Newcastle have to do better in the final third! Shelvey plays a wonderful ball over the top for Saint-Maximin and for a moment it’s two-on-two on the edge of the Liverpool box.
Saint-Maximin sizes Matip up but then gets his control horribly wrong and the chance is effectively gone. Really poor.
Newcastle 0-1 Liverpool
74 mins: CHANCES! Diaz skips away from Krafth and stands the ball up on the byline. Salah controls it wonderfully inside the box and tries to bend one towards the top corner but Dubravka comfortably saves.
Liverpool are then in again as they find Jota in behind, only for his effort to be blasted straight at Dubravka who got his body behind it.
Newcastle on the ropes.
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