Self-control under immense pressure is not easy – yet Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool march on

ST JAMES’ PARK, NEWCASTLE — In the minutes before kick-off, as St James’ Park filled and a giant banner was unfurled over the Gallowgate End, the music on the Tannoy slipped into “Panic” by The Smiths. Someone was enjoying themselves.

With Liverpool FC being a global club, almost two hours later as the scoreboard showed it was 2-2 and the “as it stands” table said Jürgen Klopp’s team were second in the table and on the brink of second place in the title race, there will indeed have been panic in the streets of Dublin, Dundee, Humberside and all over the red world.

But at St James’, amid swirling rain and intense noise, there was little of that. Liverpool played on, rode their luck, accepted a few beneficial whistles from referee Andre Marriner and via Divock Origi’s head got a precious winner. Maybe one of those “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters had been put up in the away dressing-room.

Immense pressure

“I don’t have to do something to maintain this,” Klopp said of Liverpool’s calmness. “We are like this. So that’s how we will play.”

Jordan Henderson took a similar line. “We knew there was going to be lots of time added on,” he said of the eight minutes of injury-time caused by treatment to Mo Salah, “so it wasn’t a case of having to rush it. We had to keep calm, keep playing and not panic. We managed to do that.”

Self-control under immense pressure is not easy – when Klopp first mentioned playing Barcelona this week, he got the day wrong – and as the hours pass towards Sunday the frenzy around Liverpool’s possible first league title for 29 years will mushroom. Then again, Anfield should be able to cope – when you walk through a storm and all that.

Klopp, understandably, considers taking the race to the last day an achievement in itself.

Organised and committed

As second-half minutes ticked away on Tyneside, that was under increasing threat. Liverpool had been good: Virgil Van Dijk continued to dominate from centre-half, Andy Robertson maintained his season-long and match-length excellence.

But so were Newcastle. Organised and committed, Salomon Rondon had his best game in a black-and-white jersey and scored a clean volley for the Magpies’ second equaliser. Paul Dummett, who has soared since his return from injury, cleared and cleared again.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, 20 and impressive once more, had supplied the crosses from which Van Dijk and Salah had scored – Christian Atsu equalising in between.

And suddenly there were four minutes left.

Nervous tension

Then Matt Ritchie, who epitomises the ethic of this growing Newcastle side, made one of his agitated challenges for the ball. It is Ritchie’s frenetic style. The referee should know that.

Fabinho, one of the few who occasionally looked tired, felt Ritchie’s fingertips on his back. Out of character with the contest, Fabinho flung himself to the turf like a six year-old denied ice cream.

The linesman was two yards away and he and Marriner both rewarded this with a free-kick.

Xherdan Shaqiri, a sure-footed substitute, obeyed Van Dijk’s instruction to take it. Shaqiri’s delivery was fast and precise. Origi got his magic touch.

In the stands, scuffles broke out, as they had throughout the night. Then came those eight minutes of injury-time and another shot of nervous tension. There were some anxious moments in the Liverpool defence, but another substitute, James Milner, joined Shaqiri in playing measured midfield possession. They got Liverpool to the final whistle.

‘In my mind, we win it’

Newcastle had given all they could, just as they did when beating Manchester City here in January. Liverpool had taken it and moved back to the top of the table: played 37, won 29, lost one. Yet still Liverpool could finish behind City.

Asked what he would say in such an event, Klopp replied, with some bite: “I don’t prepare my text. I feel it and then I say it. I don’t have to think a week before what I say.

“I didn’t think a second about it. In my mind, we win it, but it still can happen that it will not happen. I know that, but I don’t think about that. Thinking about a negative scenario is a waste of time.”

The absence of Roberto Firmino, and possibly Salah, against Barcelona on Tuesday is a negative Klopp must ponder next. Then it is Wolves on Sunday.

“It’s going to the last game,” added Henderson. “We need to finish on a high at Anfield and then pray that something, a miracle, can happen.”