Match reportSzoboszlai and Mac Allister net against Newcastle to send Liverpool 13 points clear

Dominik Szoboszlai opened the scoring in the 11th minute and was joined on the scoresheet by Alexis Mac Allister midway through the second half.

Those goals saw Arne Slot’s men take advantage of second-placed Arsenal being held to a draw against Nottingham Forest earlier in the evening to increase their lead at the summit, though they have played a game more.

Team

Slot opted to make two changes to the line-up deployed at Manchester City three days earlier, with Diogo Jota and Kostas Tsimikas inserted into the XI.

Alisson, Van Dijk, Konate, Diaz (Nunez, 87), Szoboszlai, Mac Allister (Jones, 87), Salah, Jota (Gakpo, 62), Tsimikas, Gravenberch (Endo, 77), Alexander-Arnold (Quansah, 77).

Unused subs: Kelleher, Chiesa, Elliott, Robertson.

First half

The match started in torrential rain but it did not dampen Liverpool’s enthusiasm to leave an early mark.

The bright start was rewarded with the 100th goal of the 2024-25 campaign – Szoboszlai taking that tally to three figures with his seventh contribution.

Diaz charged down the left flank and found the No.8 stationed in the centre of the Newcastle box, with the stroked first-time finish taking a nick on the way to beating Nick Pope.

Both sides had adopted a front-footed approach, making it a physical and hectic affair.

Tsimikas blazed high and wide with a right-footed shot inside the penalty area just before the visitors worked their best chance of the half.

Callum Wilson had been sent through and evaded the offside trap but was off-target with his strike when bearing down on Alisson Becker’s goal.

The Reds nearly added to the lead prior to the break with curling efforts from Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah.

Second half

It was stop-start after the interval owing to several injury breaks but the hosts made the most of their first real opening of the period.

Mac Allister started the move by winning possession high up the pitch and finished it with a lovely lifted sweep into the far corner of the Kop-end net in the 63rd minute. In between, Salah had received a pass from the driving Argentinian and held the ball up before laying off to the goalscorer.

Alisson preserved his side’s two-goal cushion by palming away a deflected cross, and that save sparked a Liverpool breakaway, which ended with a sliding Diaz poking wide from an exquisite outside-of-the-boot delivery from Salah.

It was a relatively comfortable conclusion for the Reds and further gloss would have been added to the victory had Pope not got down low to claw away a Salah shot late on.

Attendance: 60,374