Newcastle Beat Everton In 5-Goal Thriller
Newcastle stormed back from two goals down at half-time to beat Everton in a captivating match, leaving Toffees boss Marco Silva angry Ayoze Perez’s winner was not disallowed for offside.
Perez capped a stellar performance by whipping the ball past Jordan Pickford in the 84th minute after the Everton defence failed to react to Isaac Hayden’s lofted pass back into the box.
The Spaniard had retreated from a clear offside position but only touched the ball after Salomon Rondon – although replays appeared to show Rondon was slightly offside when the ball was played in.
“When they scored the third goal it was a big mistake by the assistant – it was a clear offside,” said Silva, who confronted referee Lee Mason on the pitch after the game.
“If you see the image it’s not just one or two players in offside positions, there were five Newcastle players in the same line in offside positions.
“If 2-2 for us at that moment was a big frustration, imagine when they scored the third goal in a clear offside position?”
Perez had levelled three minutes earlier when Pickford spilled Miguel Almiron’s stinging drive into his path, while he also set up Rondon’s fine volley to get the hosts back into the game.
Until then, Rafael Benitez’s side had felt aggrieved at Mason’s decision not to send Pickford off for a foul on Rondon, with the England goalkeeper saving Matt Ritchie’s poor subsequent penalty.
Moments after that save, Richarlison tapped in his side’s second after Martin Dubravka parried Andres Gomes’ low cross straight to the Everton winger.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin got the opener on 18 minutes with a fine glancing header from Lucas Digne’s superb cross.
But the Toffees faded badly in the face of Newcastle’s second-half onslaught and are now only three points in front of Benitez’s side, with Silva admitting his side “have to look at ourselves.”
“We lost because it was our fault,” he said.
“Because I’m sure if we had kept doing what we did in the first half and we did what we had to do in the first 15 minutes of the second half, we would have killed the match with a third goal.”
