“Newcastle’s waste of time against Liverpool cannot compete with the crazy effort of Maccabi Haifa”, this was surprisingly written today (Thursday) on the “Givemesport” website, the morning after Liverpool’s amazing victory in the 98th minute.
Newcastle came very close to avoiding a first Premier League defeat of the season, but dropped the lead at the feet of Alexander Izak during the second half after Mohamed Salah had teed up Roberto Firmino. The Magpies went into a five-minute overtime tied at one, but Joelinton lay down on the grass, goalkeeper Nick Pope didn’t miss an opportunity to pass time either, and that’s how the teams found themselves in the eighth minute of overtime – after the referee made it clear that he wouldn’t allow it.
Newcastle managed to outsmart the Liverpool players and people, as well as the Anfield fans, throughout added time, but the volcano erupted when a corner kick from the right resulted in youngster Fabio Carvalho beating Pope to make it 1-2 to Liverpool in the 98th minute, in fact the last move of the confrontation.
Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp scolded Eddie Howe’s team at the end: “I’m very happy that everyone saw what happened here today. Newcastle is strong enough anyway. Everyone wants to see football, and when the game is stopped so many times it’s not pleasant for anyone.”
“Wasting the best time in Abu Fani’s history against Maccabi Tel Aviv”
And how is the champion of Israel related to all this? In “Givemesport” they recalled what they defined as “the best waste of time in history”, when Muhammad Abu Fani spent two minutes with the Horn flag in a 2:3 victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv last season. In that game, the referee added seven minutes and, like Newcastle, Maccabi Haifa was not at all ashamed to waste time – but it did so wisely, did not allow its opponent to take advantage of the added time and kept the advantage. It is only interesting how Klopp would have reacted if Newcastle had managed to pass the time in this way and not in another way.