Liverpool and Newcastle dugouts clashed at Anfield yesterday evening after Fabio Carvalho‘s dramatic late winner.
The Reds defeated Newcastle 2-1 in what was a hard-fought game that saw plenty of tension on the touchline throughout, which concluded in a melee after the 20-year-old’s late finish.
Scenes on BT Sport seemed to show members from both teams being held back, as well as a member of Liverpool’s bench – seemingly head of fitness and coaching Andreas Kornmayer – making gestures and a bottle being thrown from a member of Newcastle staff towards the home dugout.
A member of Newcastle’s coaching staff appeared to throw a bottle towards Liverpool staff
A melee on the touchline followed, with several members of staff from both sides involved
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe walked away from the situations as the two dugouts clashed
Shay Given, who was working on the game as a pundit for BT Sport, said: ‘You wouldn’t encourage it but obviously emotions are really high on the bench as you can imagine, both benches. To give away a goal so late its frustrating.
‘One of the guys on the Newcastle bench, I’m not sure if he started it, but I don’t know if that’s the no 2 for Liverpool on the pitch giving some signals as well. You don’t like to see it, there’s a lot of emotions, they’ve won so they’re on cloud nine and the opposite to Newcastle, they’re really gutted with how its finished.
‘Jurgen, he looked really under pressure then, he didn’t seem himself on the touchline. He was really aggravated with everything and maybe it’s the pressure because obviously the United game and then the 9-0, everyone thinks they’re going to turn up tonight and [win] 3/4-0 no problem.’
Carvalho (right) scored a late winner for Liverpool against previously undefeated Newcastle
Liverpool staff member Andreas Kornmayer seemed to gesture to the Newcastle bench (right)
It’s unclear who threw the bottle or who it was aimed at, but it didn’t seem to make contact with anyone, seemingly missing someone by inches.
Neither club has commented on the issue, but managers Jurgen Klopp and Eddie Howe shook hands and hugged at full time and were calm when discussing the goal and game in their post-match press conferences.
Klopp and Howe were both asked about the scenes, but said they didn’t see anything they could comment on, suggesting they were unaware of the bottle incident.
Howe did however comment Newcastle’s plans to frustrate Liverpool, saying: ‘It’s a Premier League and game there’s so much at stake. We had players that were fatigued, we had one day’s less recovery than Liverpool but we’ve given everything to every game we’ve had so far so there was no gamesmanship from our perspective, I think it was just tired bodies.
‘Obviously second half we wanted to slow the game down they wanted to quicken it up, so there were natural frustrations against two polar opposite needs really.’
Jurgen Klopp (left) and Eddie Howe (right) said they saw nothing in the incident to comment on
The duo hugged it out at full time after what was a scintillating game at Anfield yesterday
Alexander Isak, who scored in the first half on his debut to put Newcastle ahead, could be seen sitting on the bench behind the individual who threw the bottle.
It’s possible the bottle throw could have caused the scenes on the touchline, with it seeming to happen soon after the goal went in.
In terms of the melee, several key members of each club were involved, including Joel Matip, Darwin Nunez, Pep Lijnders, Jason Tindall, Graeme Jones and Fabian Schar.
Schar looked particularly frustrated, and was held back from getting to Lijnders, who told the defender to sit down.