[Source: Reuters]

Premier League leaders Liverpool had their advantage cut to seven points as Fabian Schar’s late equaliser earned Newcastle United a thrilling 3-3 draw at St James’ Park.

An inspired Newcastle twice led but Mohamed Salah’s brace looked like sealing victory for Arne Slot’s side, only for a sliding Schar to punish a rare misjudgement by Liverpool keeper Caoimhin Kelleher in the 90th minute.

Until Schar’s late intervention the night was once again all about the unstoppable Salah who has now scored and assisted in 37 Premier League games in his career — a new record.

The Egyptian guided in substitute Trent Alexander-Arnold’s pass in the 68th minute after Anthony Gordon had restored Newcastle’s lead from Alexander Isak’s pass.

Salah then struck the crossbar with a wonderfully improvised effort but was not to be denied as he produced a silky turn in the area to fire a shot past Nick Pope in the 83rd minute.

The 32-year-old has now scored in seven successive Premier League games and moved ahead of Manchester City’s Erling Haaland at the top of this season’s chart with 13 goals.

“Every time we need him he scores an important goal,” Slot said of Salah’s performance.

“He was outstanding, apart from the goals he did many more special things for us.”

Slot was understandably disappointed to drop two points so late on although he admitted his side were lucky to still be in the game at halftime after being dominated by Newcastle.

Liverpool head into the weekend’s Merseyside derby on 35 points from 14 games with Chelsea and Arsenal on 28. Newcastle are 10th with 20 points.

Newcastle’s high-tempo was too much for the visitors in the first half and they thoroughly deserved the lead given to them by Isak’s spectacular shot from the edge of the area.

The Swede was played in by Bruno Guimaraes’s pass and showed great balance to step inside Virgil van Dijk before smashing an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.

Jacob Murphy also hit the post for Newcastle, as did Alexis Mac Allister for Liverpool, while the hosts should have been further ahead when Gordon went clear through on goal only for Kelleher to make a save.

Liverpool were a different proposition in a pulsating second half and Salah’s pass with the outside of his foot enabled Curtis Jones to make it 1-1 five minutes after the restart.

The visitors carved out several other opportunities but Slot admitted a draw was a fair reward for both sides.

“We were outstanding in the second half but the first half we were not good enough,” Slot said.

“They were really aggressive and forced us to make mistakes. But the second half was so much better and we had much more control.”

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe was full of praise for Isak who had earlier threatened to upstage Salah.

“I thought that was his best performance of the season. It was a goal out of nothing. This season we’ve missed those. Those moments of magic can swing games your way,” he said.