Newcastle United goalkeeper Karl Darlow kept a clean sheet and pulled off a save of the season contender to frustrate Liverpool and boost his hopes of an England call-up.
The 30-year-old has been one of the bright sparks in what has been a fairly drab season so far for Newcastle since he replaced the injured Martin Dubravka.
With England No 1 Jordan Pickford out of form and others failing to usurp him in Gareth Southgate’s pecking order, the Newcastle stopper has been tipped for international honours.
His performance in the 0-0 draw with Liverpool on Wednesday night, in which he made one stunning fingertip save to deny Mohamed Salah and another eyecatching, albeit much easier save, from Roberto Firmino, will have done his chances no harm.
What a save!@NUFC goalkeeper Karl Darlow denies Mo Salah with a tremendous stop
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) December 30, 2020#PLonPrime #NEWLIV pic.twitter.com/a8zJ4idahc
“It would be silly of me to not admit that I’m aware of [England rumours],” Darlow told Amazon Prime after the game.
“Hopefully I can just keep performing how I have been and if that gets me into contention then I’ll be over the moon with that.
“I just need to keep performing and hopefully that [the call-up] might happen.”
Back in the stduio, former Newcastle striker Alan Shearer was more ebullient in his praise for what he described as “superb” display.
“He should be very, very proud of his performance,” Shearer said.
“When you are playing against the quality of Liverpool and their forwards you know you are going to have to have a good game.
You are going to have to rely on your goalkeeper at some stage during the game… when required he came up with the goods.
“He was big and strong and just kept them out and there was no way they were going to get past him. The defenders in front of him had to work extremely hard but when they got past the defenders he was just exceptional. Superb.”
Former Liverpool midfielder Steve McManaman added that Darlow has been “excellent for the majority of the season,” to which Shearer replied: “He got an opportunity when Dubravka was injured. The question was put to him, ‘You’re in there. Can you stay in there?’. Well Dubrvaka is now not getting back in this team with his form like that.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3huhp12
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