Dominik Szoboszlai has admitted he could not hear the referee’s whistle before his pressure penalty kick in Liverpool’s 2-2 draw at Newcastle.
The midfielder scored deep into stoppage time despite the best efforts of the Newcastle crowd to put him off, as Liverpool fought back to claim a late draw.
Newcastle had twice led through Anthony Elanga and Joe Willock, but a Cody Gakpo goal and Szoboszlai’s spot-kick secured Liverpool a point.
The St James’ Park atmosphere was fired up by a pre-game tribute to the late Kevin Keegan, and return of former favourite-turned-villain Alexander Isak for the first time.
Szoboszlai admitted it was impossible to ignore the deafening noise as he stepped up to score.
“To be honest, I didn’t even hear the referee’s whistle. I had to look at him if I can go. I was practicing a lot during the pre-season. We didn’t have any penalties during games, but in training. We need to take the positivity of the first game and move on,” he said to Sky Sports.
“More than 50,000 fans in the stadium against you. You can’t hear your own voice. That’s why I love football and that’s why I am doing it.
“To come here is always tough. Everybody knows the [Newcastle] fans are unbelievable. They have a great team and a manager – new but he has proven himself in many other clubs. But we were prepared and we needed to be closer to each other under a new manager as well. We needed to know what was going on in the game. It’s a good thing coming back into the game after 2-1 down.
“If I am honest, we should have won. But that’s football. You don’t win easy in the Premier League – doesn’t matter who you play against. We have to be aware of that and we need to take care in the next game.”
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