Booed Isak Blanks On Newcastle Return As Liverpool Snatch Late Point

Alexander Isak walked back out at St James’ Park for the first time after the summer he forced his way out of Newcastle, and the reception told him everything he needed to know. Every touch drew boos. Every misplaced pass drew a roar of delight from the home end. Twelve months on from an exit that turned bitter, the Newcastle fans had not forgotten, and Isak had no answer for them.

He played all 90 minutes of Sunday’s 2-2 draw and barely left a mark on it. The pace, the sudden bursts in behind, the composure in front of goal that once made him the most feared striker in the Premier League: none of it showed up. Newcastle old boy or not, this was a forward going through the motions while his new club escaped with a point they barely deserved.

Liverpool needed a stoppage-time penalty from Dominik Szoboszlai, in the 99th minute, just to salvage a draw that denied Newcastle a win on Matthias Jaissle’s first game in charge. It also meant Andoni Iraola avoided defeat on his own bow as Liverpool head coach, though a point at St James’ Park will have done little to settle any nerves about his new-look front line.

Both dugouts carried new faces. Jaissle took over at Newcastle following Eddie Howe’s departure, arriving from Saudi side Al Ahli, where he won back-to-back Asian Champions League titles, and before that from a spell at Red Bull Salzburg that brought consecutive Austrian league titles. He signed a four-year contract at St James’ Park. Iraola, meanwhile, replaced Arne Slot after three seasons at Bournemouth in which he took the club into European competition for the first time in its history, and arrived at Anfield on a two-year deal.

Newcastle explode into a fast start

The afternoon began with a tribute to Kevin Keegan, the Newcastle and Liverpool great, observed from all four sides of St James’ Park before kick-off. Jaissle’s side responded by playing like a team desperate to give the old anthem hero something to smile about.

Five minutes in, Will Osula found Anthony Elanga with a single pass from the edge of the Newcastle area after Liverpool had been caught committing too many men forward, and Elanga finished for his first league goal at the club. It was a sign of things to come from a Liverpool midfield that spent long spells of the afternoon exposed.

“It’s something we’ve been talking about all week,” Iraola told Sky Sports after the game. “We have to finish more plays, we were trying to overdo things in the first phase.”

Yoane Wissa nearly doubled the lead soon after, feeding Osula with an outside-of-the-boot pass that Alisson did well to deny, while Florian Wirtz forced a strong save from Lukas Hornicek at the other end. Both sides had chances, but it was Newcastle who looked the sharper, more coherent team through the opening half hour.

Wissa finds a new role, and Newcastle punish a slow Liverpool restart

Liverpool improved after the break and drew level ten minutes in. Cody Gakpo, their most dangerous outlet all afternoon, beat several challenges before driving a low effort past Hornicek from 20 yards to make it 1-1.

The celebrations barely had time to die down. Three minutes later, Wissa, deployed as an auxiliary No 10 rather than the out-and-out finisher Newcastle signed him to be, beat several players before feeding substitute Joe Willock, who restored the home side’s lead within a minute of coming on. It was a night when Wissa did as much creating as scoring, and Jaissle’s pressing, counter-pressing approach seemed built to get the best out of him.

Both teams traded half-chances after that, but for long spells Liverpool failed to lay a glove on Newcastle. It looked like Jaissle would claim his first win as Newcastle head coach until Lewis Hall lunged in on substitute Victor Munoz inside the box in the 96th minute. Referee Stuart Attwell pointed to the spot after a lengthy VAR check, and Szoboszlai buried the penalty into the top corner to snatch a share of the points in the very last action of the game.

Jaissle left to reflect on hard luck, Iraola praises his bench

Jaissle, taking charge of his first Newcastle match, was left to rue what might have been.

“Hard luck, I would say,” he said. “I’m really, really happy with the performance after such a short amount of time. The guys were fighting till the end, they put their heart on the pitch and this is something we said that’s not negotiable.

“That’s the standard. And together with the crowd, it was, in general, a really good performance. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the full three points. The heads are a little bit down, but they’re also realistic, they know that we had many mini challenges already.”

Iraola, whose side face a busy September with the transfer window shutting the following week, credited his substitutes for the late rescue act.

“I don’t think we deserve to lose the game and I value the effort from the players,” he said. “I haven’t looked at the stats, but I’m sure we will have more chances, more everything. I think the players coming from the bench gave us energy. I don’t know if they played better, worse, but they gave us energy. And you can feel the way we want to play, everyone is not going to last 90 minutes. So we need this energy from the ones coming from the bench and I think today it happened.”

Key moments at St James’ Park

• 5′: Anthony Elanga finishes a quick Newcastle break after Liverpool are caught with numbers forward
• 18′: Florian Wirtz forces a good save out of Lukas Hornicek after a half-cleared cross
• 25′: Yoane Wissa feeds Will Osula with an outside-of-the-boot pass, but Alisson denies him
• 55′: Cody Gakpo levels with a low, driven effort from 20 yards
• 57′: Joe Willock restores Newcastle’s lead within a minute of coming off the bench
• 90+6′: Lewis Hall brings down substitute Victor Munoz, and referee Stuart Attwell points to the spot
• 90+9′: Dominik Szoboszlai buries the penalty into the top corner after a lengthy VAR check

A summer that has already flipped the story

Isak forced his exit from Newcastle last summer in a saga that dragged on for weeks. He went public with his frustration on social media, accusing the club of breaking promises over a move he believed had already been agreed, then trained away from the first-team squad and missed Newcastle’s opening matches of the season while the two clubs argued over a fee.

Liverpool eventually got their man for a reported £125m, with a further £5m in solidarity payments taking the total package to around £130m, a British transfer record. Isak signed a six-year contract at Anfield and arrived with the reputation of the most complete striker outside the very elite of the sport.

None of that history mattered to the home end on Sunday. Isak’s every touch was met with jeers, and for 90 minutes he offered the crowd little reason to reconsider. Whether that comes down to a lack of match sharpness after an interrupted pre-season, the occasion itself, or something more lingering, only time will tell. What is clear after one round of fixtures is that Newcastle, rebuilt around Wissa and a front line that no longer depends on him, have started life without their former striker in ominous form.

Willock’s introduction from the bench proved decisive too. Brought on alongside a raft of changes as Jaissle looked to freshen his side after the break, he needed barely a minute to make an impact, arriving at the back post to turn home Wissa’s cutback and send St James’ Park into raptures for the second time in three minutes. It was the sort of instant impact substitute appearance that will have caught Jaissle’s eye for the weeks ahead, with Newcastle’s squad still being shaped just over a week before the transfer window shuts.

For Liverpool, a draw at St James’ Park on the opening weekend is far from a disaster, and Szoboszlai’s nerve from the spot will be remembered long after the rest of the afternoon fades. But if Iraola’s side are to mount a serious challenge to champions Arsenal this season, they will need considerably more from the front two who cost them so much this past year.

Jaissle, for his part, leaves Tyneside with plenty to build on. A team that pressed hard for large parts of the afternoon, found a new dimension through Wissa, and twice found a way back in front against a Liverpool side still finding its shape under a new head coach, is not a bad starting point for a manager only a matter of weeks into the job. The result will sting given how close Newcastle came to a statement opening win, but the performance offered plenty for their supporters, still buzzing from the Keegan tribute, to build belief around heading into the coming weeks.