Dominik Szoboszlai rescued Liverpool from the penalty spot with the last kick of the game as Andoni Iraola's side began their season with an underwhelming 2-2 draw against Newcastle.
Anthony Elanga opened the scoring before Cody Gakpo's strike from distance was quickly cancelled out by Joe Willock's seemingly match-winning effort. But Szoboszlai kept his nerve from 12 yards after Lewis Hall's tired challenge on Victor Munoz.
Emotional tribute to Kevin Keegan
An incredibly emotional day centred around the memory of the late Kevin Keegan received a classic Keegan start. Both sets of fans paid tribute to the club great, who died last month at the age of 75 after battling cancer. Keegan's Newcastle side of the 1990s was known as 'The Entertainers', and in his first game in charge, Matthias Jaissle's side raced out of the traps as exactly that.
A mix of the emotion of the day, a sense of injustice over the summer given the departure of Eddie Howe and key players, alongside Alexander Isak's hostile first return to the city since he forced through a £125million move last summer, had the Geordies up for the fight, while Liverpool were not ready.
Kerkez's nightmare afternoon
Milos Kerkez endured an underwhelming first season at Anfield following his £40m move from Bournemouth, but the Hungarian has been immensely backed to come good after Andy Robertson was allowed to leave on a free. Without a World Cup to play in, meaning an entire pre-season under his belt, Reds fans would have expected Kerkez to hit the ground running, but it was very much the opposite as he was completely embarrassed by the pace of Anthony Elanga just minutes into the game as the hosts took the lead.
Kerkez was immediately targeted by Elanga's blistering speed, which is no surprise given the former Manchester United winger is arguably the fastest player in the league. But Kerkez had his shorts pulled down by the Swede, who burst around him and into the box despite giving the Reds defender a 10-yard head start from back inside his own half.
William Osula was allowed to drive forward into Liverpool's half with the ball as Virgil van Dijk and debutant Jeremy Jacquet decided to drop off rather than confront the forward. That allowed Elanga to burn past Kerkez and be fed the ball through on goal, firing across Alisson. Kerkez then found himself in the book after just 30 minutes for holding Elanga, while on the other side of defence Jeremie Frimpong was booked just seconds later for fouling Harvey Barnes as the pace and defensive ability of the Reds' backline was seriously questioned. However, Jacquet's ability on the ball to break the lines was a big plus to take away from the £60m man's debut.
Fitness concerns and Gakpo's strike
It was a nightmare start for Iraola and the defence, but Liverpool rallied well and had the lion's share of the possession – something that the Basque's Bournemouth team hardly ever did. The thought of being able to play the same way at Liverpool as he did at Bournemouth was never something that could be replicated. Instead it was Iraola's team being countered at pace, something they completely lacked in transition and attempting to commit defenders.
Iraola made clear Liverpool's fitness issue two weeks ago when they suffered pre-season defeat to Monaco, saying: "The problem is right now probably they don't have the energy for 90 minutes and they start to get tired. It will take time with them, we need more training with them."
Florian Wirtz had Liverpool's best chance of the first half, seeing a snapshot turned around the post, but it was another half where Liverpool's two British record signings failed to link up, with Isak giving Newcastle fans the perfect ammunition as he was bullied through another half.
The start of the second half started openly, but it looked as though Liverpool would need a moment of magic rather than a well-crafted effort to get level, and that's exactly what Gakpo's 25-yard strike did. Gakpo is one of the most frustrating players in Red; he lacks pace and his constant want to shoot whenever the chance opens up on his right foot eventually paid off and got fans off their feet for the right reason.
But Liverpool's lack of legs and want to defend aggressively saw Newcastle retake the lead just two minutes later. Yoane Wissa wriggled away on the counter-attack without a challenge before he was allowed to dribble forward as Liverpool's centre-backs again decided to retreat rather than engage. Joe Willock joined in the attack and arrived onto the ball, bending an effort into the far post from the edge of the box - completely undoing Liverpool's positive work at the start of the second half.
But with the final kick of the game, Liverpool got out of jail as Szoboszlai stepped up from 12 yards to find the top corner after Hall's tired tackle bundled over Munoz.
