Monday's Premier League match at St. James Park between Liverpool and Newcastle United was everything we love, and sometimes hate, about football at this level.
Fair play to the Newcastle fans because they had the stadium rocking and roaring from start to finish as you could tell this match meant a little bit more with the Alexander Isak cloud hanging over proceedings.
Liverpool were outplayed for large portions of the match but sweet strikes from Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike had them strolling.
Some very sloppy defending soon followed but at the very death, it was the 16-year old Rio Ngumoha who calmly and confidently dispatched a smooth finish to win it in the 100th minute. Let's see how the Liverpool players rated in the pulsating win over Newcastle.
Alisson Becker - 6.5/10 - The Brazilian had a lot of work to do as the Magpies had set piece after set-piece in this one. He was more at fault for the second goal than the first, but he battled through.
Dominik Szoboslzai - 7.5/10 - One of the best Reds on the night. Stood in more than admirably at right-back as he held Harvey Barnes largely in-check. Moved up late when Wirtz came off and it was his brilliant dummy that set up Rio's winning goal.
Ibrahima Konate - 6/10 - Gave away the ball cheaply at the halfway line and was lucky it did not lead to a goal. He struggled with the size of Newcastle and was not at his alert best in this one.
Virgil van Dijk - 7/10 - This kind of emotional and intense match is why you need a leader like VVD. Led strongly from the back and battled the giant Dan Burns at every turn. Lucky to escape injury from the nasty Anthony Gordon red card.
Milos Kerkez - 6/10 - It was another middling performance from the Hungarian. He was scrappy and battled, but did not add much going forward and his weak defending allowed Bruno Guimarães to head Newcastle back into the match.
Ryan Gravenberch - 7/10 - The Dutchman was calm and cool after being shown an early yellow card. His long-range strike gave LFC the lead from nothing. He battled the powerhouse Joelinton very well and he got forward more than we saw last season.
Curtis Jones - 6.5/10 - Jones did not play a huge role in the major moments of this match. He could have released Ekitike on several occasions but did not pull the trigger. An okay outing.
Florian Wirtz - 6/10 - That is back-to-back average outings from the superstart German. He forced Nick Pope into an early save but after that was not able to get on the ball enough to influence things like he can.
Mohamed Salah - 6/10 - The Egyptian was very much invisible for most of the match, but he did create a beautiful chance that Jones could not convert. Not his best night of work.
Hugo Ekitike - 7/10 - Showed elite finishing instincts 30 seconds into the second half once he was teed up to shoot from the edge of the box. A professional finish. 3 goals in 3 matches.
Cody Gakpo - 6/5/10 - He was not largely effective in the first half but grew into hte game after that. His effort created the Ekitike goal and he was a willing runner and outlet all night.
SUBS:
Harvey Elliott - N/A
Wataru Endo - N/A
Conor Bradley - 6/10 - Did some decent defending after coming on.
Federico Chiesa - 6/10 - Showed great energy and his pass out wide began the winning move.
Rio Ngumoha - 7/10 - The match-winner. Stunning composure and technical quality to curl home the winning goal in the 100th minute. What a brilliant player. Not even 17 yet.