Liverpool managed to secure a point against 10-man Newcastle at St. James’ Park as the English Premier League resumed on Sunday.
The visitors twice fought back from a goal down to secure a 2-2 draw but failed to grab the match winner as both sides shared the spoil.
French midfielder Yohan Cabaye gave Alan Pardew’s men the lead within half an hour of action, but Steven Gerrard pulled the one-goal deficit back from the penalty spot following the sending off of Mapou Yanga-Mbigwa for pulling down Luis Suarez in the area.
Paul Dummett restored the lead for the home side when his far-post shot flew past Tim Krul in goal for Newcastle, before Daniel Sturridge headed from a very close range to level for the Reds.
This fixture is known for producing tons of goal and the last time around, the magpies fell 6-0 to Brendan Rodgers’ men, but kept a compact defense to prevent the visitors from turning in too many opportunities, even with a man down.
Liverpool would however rue their inability to capitalise on the numerical advantage to seal the necessary three points, but the draw was sufficient to land them on top of the log, pending the results of Saturday’s other Premier League games.
Newcastle got off to a promising start and pulled ahead in the 23rd minute when Cabaye opened up the visitors’ defence to send a right-footed dipping shot past Simon Mignolet from outside of the area.
Liverpool posed more threat on set-pieces and Newcastle left-back David Santon, guarding the far post, was in hand to clear a Suarez header before Martin Skrtel and Aly Cissokho nodded over when well-paced.
Moussa Sissoko came close to extending newcastle’s lead in the 37th minute when his left-footed shot from outside of the box stung Mignolet’s hand.
Yanga-Mbiwa then tugs on Suarez three minutes later to allow the Reds to level up. The centre-back was the last man when he fouled the Uruguayan and was issued his matching orders by referee Andres Marriner. Gerrard stepped up to convert the spot-kick for his 100th league goal.
Right-back Glen Johnson forced Krul into a scrambling save in the 48th minute as Liverpool looked to pounce on their shot-one opponents.
But it was United who stunned the visitors by restoring their one-goal advantage when substitute Dummet steered in from a Cabaye free-kick.
Liverpool piled up front for a leveler and a Suarez shot was parried by Krul before being cleared.
Rodgers’ side eventually got the equalizer when Suarez got to the byline and crossed to Sturridge to head in from close range.
The Reds almost pulled ahead when Suarez’s shot graxed the bar and he had an injury-time free-kick saved.
