Liverpool 3-1 Newcastle: Sadio Mane's brace helps Liverpool comeback to beat Newcastle

Jetro Willems stunned Anfield by firing Steve Bruce's side into an early with a brilliant strike but the Reds responded in style.

Mane netted twice before the interval and Mohamed Salah added the third after an exquisite piece of skill from the outstanding Roberto Firmino, who had started on the bench.

Victory was Liverpool's fifth in an impressive start to the league season and was the perfect warm-up for the start of their Champions League defence at Napoli next week.

Liverpool dominated from the outset but boss Jurgen Klopp may be concerned about the early lapse that allowed the Magpies to take a seventh-minute lead.

The hosts had controlled most of the possession until then but were caught out as Christian Atsu controlled a long ball and played in Willems.

Nothing, however, should be taken away from Willems' fine finish. The Dutchman, brought in on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt, cut inside Trent Alexander-Arnold and fired a powerful shot past Adrian into the top corner.

The hosts wanted a penalty when Joel Matip claimed Lascelles had pulled him back but referee Andre Marriner gave nothing and VAR did not intervene.

Klopp looked unimpressed with that decision but was soon celebrating as Liverpool, now piling on the pressure, levelled in the 28th minute.

Mane took a great touch following an Andy Robertson cutback and clipped a superb shot over Martin Dubravka into the top corner.

The Reds suffered an injury blow when Origi was forced off in the 37th minute but that merely gave Klopp the chance to introduce Firmino, who he had hoped to rest ahead of Napoli.

The Brazlian was soon into the thick of the action and created Liverpool's second five minutes before the break with a superb throughball for Mane.

Dubravka tried to intercept but Mane got the better of him and then tapped into the empty net.

Liverpool went in search of more goals after the break with Georginio Wijnaldum shooting narrowly over on the half-volley and Alexander-Arnold almost squeezing in a shot at the near post.

Emil Krafth spurned a good chance to equalise when he fired over from an Atsu cross but Robertson almost grabbed another for Liverpool with a close-range effort that was turned wide by Dubravka.

Salah claimed Liverpool's deserved third 18 minutes from time, although it owed much to sublime work from Firmino.

The substitute trapped a ball from Salah with his back to goal, flicked it away from a defender and then played the Egyptian in on goal with another clever touch. Salah raced through and finished comfortably.

Mane thought he had claimed his hat-trick in the closing moments but a flag was raised for offside against Firmino.

Match highlights

Opta stats

• Liverpool are the fourth team to win 14 consecutive English top-flight matches, after Arsenal (14, August 2002), Man City (15, August 2019) and Man City again (18, December 2017).
• For the second consecutive season, Liverpool have won their opening five games of the Premier League campaign – the only previous two teams to do so in back-to-back seasons were Chelsea (2009-10/2010-11) and Man City (2015-16/2016-17).
• Newcastle have lost 13 of their last 14 Premier League away games against “big six” opponents (W1), with three of those defeats coming at Anfield.
• Liverpool have won each of their last five Premier League games at Anfield when they’ve conceded the opening goal, with three of those comeback victories coming in 2019 (4-3 v Crystal Palace, 4-2 v Burnley and 3-1 v Newcastle).
• Liverpool have now scored 101 goals against Newcastle in the Premier League; the third team to score 100+ against a single opponent in the competition, and first to do so against a side who hasn’t been ever-present (Arsenal 107 v Everton, Manchester United 100 v Everton).
• Liverpool’s Sadio Mané has never lost a Premier League home game in which he's found the net, winning 33 and drawing two of his previous 35 games in the competition when doing so.
• Mohamed Salah has been directly involved in 50 Premier League goals for Liverpool at Anfield, scoring 36 and providing 14 assists (41st appearance).
• Andy Robertson has made 17 assists for Liverpool in the Premier League since the start of the 2017-18 season; the most of any defender in this period.
• Newcastle’s Jetro Willems scored his first ever goal within the top five European leagues, in what was his 49th such appearance (three for Newcastle and 46 for Eintracht Frankfurt).

As it happened