Two top-class goals: Jurgen Klopp hails Darwin Nunez after Liverpool’s dramatic win at Newcastle

NEWCASTLE – 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 Premier League clash on Sunday.

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, we need to get results, and then we play every three days and everybody will play, there’s no doubt about that,” the German 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.”

His striker was revelling in the moment.

“I feel very happy for the team to be able to help them,” a beaming Nunez, who signed for a club-record £85 million (S$145.2 million) last season, told Sky Sports, with goalkeeper Alisson Becker acting as his translator.

“After we went a man down, the team played really well. We work really hard for these moments, and I am happy to score the two goals to help the team.”

Trent Alexander-Arnold was fortunate to escape a red card after just six minutes, before his mistake allowed Anthony Gordon to open the scoring for Newcastle.

“We had to do it the hard way, the very hard way. But we all pulled together, dug deep and delivered something for the ages,” Alexander-Arnold told Sky Sports.

“One of our best performances since the manager has come in, and we’ve had some outstanding performances as a team. We’ll look back on this game as something very, very special.”

Klopp added: “With 10 men in my history, 1,000 games (as a manager), I have never had something like that. At Newcastle, in this stadium with that atmosphere, it is crazy.”

Despite the win, former England and Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher insisted that the Reds are not in a position to challenge champions Manchester City.

He told Sky Sports: “The squad that Liverpool have right now are not good enough to challenge Manchester City, but they’ve got to go for it in the transfer market this week in terms of bringing in another defender and midfielder. That has to happen.”

However, Alisson said: “There has been so much talk about our feelings on the transfer window. Please don’t put words in our mouths, we are together, we believe in ourselves and we showed that here at Newcastle.”

Meanwhile, back-to-back single-goal defeats by 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.” REUTERS, AFP