**Gary Neville delivered his verdict on Liverpool’s late penalty at Newcastle, insisting Lewis Hall knew ‘deep inside’ it was the right decision as the Reds snatched a 2-2 draw.**
Andoni Iraola stood seconds away from a nightmare start to his official Liverpool reign on Sunday afternoon. Newcastle United had ripped through the Reds’ midfield twice, leaving Iraola’s side staring down their first opening-weekend league defeat since a dismal 3-0 loss at West Brom back in 2012.
Then came the ninth minute of stoppage time, a flash of panicked defending from Lewis Hall, and a refereeing decision that spared Liverpool’s blushes on Tyneside.
As Victor Munoz drove into the box, Hall caught the Spaniard’s knee without touching the ball. Referee Stuart Attwell pointed straight to the spot, allowing new joint-vice captain Dominik Szoboszlai to step up and hammer an emphatic penalty into the roof of the net, snatching a dramatic 2-2 draw.
While Newcastle fans raged at the decision, claiming Munoz went to ground far too easily, former Manchester United defender Gary Neville offered a blunt reality check on co-commentary.
Speaking on _Sky Sports_, Neville insisted the officials got it right:
**_“Hall has been incredible but that is not going to be overturned. There was no touch on the ball… I think Hall knows deep inside that it was a penalty.”_**
Slow-motion replays backed up Neville’s assessment, confirming clear contact on the Liverpool winger’s knee. Hall took a gamble, missed the ball entirely, and paid the ultimate price.
Even the most glass-half-full Kopite will admit Liverpool got out of jail. Jamie Carragher rightfully bemoaned the “madness” of a defensive structure that allowed Newcastle to slice through the middle of the pitch far too easily for both of their goals. Iraola’s open, high-wire system left huge gaps behind the midfield, and stronger opposition will punish those defensive lapses without mercy.
Szoboszlai’s ice-cold penalty salvages a point, but it merely papers over the cracks of a deeply chaotic performance.
Iraola now knows he has massive tactical work to do before Nottingham Forest visit Anfield next Saturday. Liverpool dodged a bullet at St James’ Park, but relying on late refereeing interventions is no way to build a title challenge.
Make no mistake, this was a smash-and-grab job of the highest order. While the character to fight until the 99th minute deserves immense credit, relying on dramatic late interventions and marginal penalty calls is a high-stakes gamble that simply isn’t sustainable across a 38-game campaign. Szoboszlai’s nerve saved the headlines from being entirely toxic, but the underlying structural flaws exposed on Tyneside will have given Iraola plenty of sleepless nights ahead of next weekend.
The baseline requirement for a Liverpool team competing at the top end of the table has always been control, and right now, control is the one thing this midfield cannot provide. Swallowing a hard-earned point at a ground as hostile as St James’ Park is acceptable on paper, but the performance itself served as a glaring warning sign. If Iraola fails to plug the chasms through the center of the pitch before Forest arrive at Anfield, no amount of late-game chaos will save them next time.