Newcastle United’s reliable goalkeeper Nick Pope made one of the worst howlers of his career on Saturday in a Premier League clash against Liverpool’s Mo Salah. The English keeper came out of his box and handled the ball in a humiliating mistake that saw him being sent off. Commenting on his mistake, one fan said, “He only lost his memory for a few seconds”.
He only lost his memory for a few seconds pic.twitter.com/SrS7Z07DkL
— FariS Al3nZi (@33ccii) February 18, 2023
Here are some more fan reactions to Pope’s howler:
Probs went to head it and clearly missed then hand balled it. Definitely should have just kicked it or not ran over in the first place but yk
— liam.barny (@asxtr1x) February 18, 2023
I’m crying what is this 😭😭
— Sam Mandel 🇦🇺🇨🇦 (@SamMandel10) February 18, 2023
What was he thinking?
— iJhone (@ignation_john) February 18, 2023
My mans thought he was playing the other football…
— Ageks (@AlexLance97) February 18, 2023
Midway through the first half, Pope came flying out of his goal to stop Mohamed Salah who was running at him with no defenders in sight. Salah was set to receive a long ball from his keeper Allison and Pope was looking to cut it out. However, Pope totally misjudged the bounce of the ball.
Instead of intercepting the ball and stopping the Egyptian from scoring, Pope ended up grabbing the ball with his hands outside his penalty box. Salah seemed like he wanted to round Pope, however, Pope tried to go to the ground and head it away. After misjudging his header, Pope handled the ball and referee Anthony Taylor immediately showed the keeper a red card.
Newcastle, who were already two goals down at this point, had to bring in Martin Dubravka for midfielder Elliot Anderson. Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo were on target for Liverpool early in the first half. The Kop could not capitalize on Newcastle’s disadvantage and score more goals. However, they earned the three points after a 2-0 win.
Nick Pope along with Martin Dubravka will miss the Carabao Cup final against Manchester United
Pope received a straight red card for his misjudged attempt to grab the ball. This means that he will miss the Carabao Cup final against Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United because suspensions that are given in the Premier League also count in the competition.
Making matters even worse for manager Eddie Howe is the problem backup keeper Martin Dubravka is facing. He will be unable to face United in the cup final because he is cup-tied. The Slovakian keeper has played for Manchester United in the Carabao Cup.
Therefore, he cannot represent another club in this season’s competition. Also, bizarrely, Dubravka will only get a winner’s medal if Manchester United wins the cup, not if Newcastle wins it.
Loris Karius could play his first competitive match since February 2021 in the Carabao Cup final 😨 pic.twitter.com/P67aMrbRzB
— GOAL (@goal) February 18, 2023
The cup final which will take place at Wembley on February 26, will see United line up against Newcastle’s third keeper. Former Liverpool keeper Loris Karius. Karius has not played a competitive match for any side since February 2021. Pope and Dubravka would be disappointed to miss out on Newcastle’s first visit to Wembley since April 2000.