Following a rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone sung straight to the departed Diogo Jota yonder, Hugo Ekitike scored the first goal of the English Premier League and his second official one for Liverpool at Anfield earlier.
For a game that was a bit of a ping-pong in the first 20 minutes, it was surprising that the opening goal came only in the 37th minute. It could have been different, though, had Marcus Tavernier taken the best chance of the first half in favour of the visitors two minutes earlier. The chance came from Bournemouth, clearly targeting Milos Kerkez to the left of the Liverpool defence.
Evanilson chased down a hopeless ball clipped in the space behind the Hungarian on the left of the Liverpool back three. Having collected the ball, he played a delightful little pass which eventually got to the right foot of Tavernier, almost on the penalty spot.
The Englishman, instead of placing the ball past the Liverpool Brazilian goalminder, played a friendly backpass into the grateful arms of Alisson Becker.
Even by the time the Frenchman netted, the ferocity of early exchanges had died down.
But three minutes after the break, Bournemouth self-destructed as they had in the preseason game against Manchester United in America a few weeks ago. That game ended 4-1 in favour of United.
Andoni Araola’s men stood as if giving Cody Gakpo a guard of honour.
The Dutchman didn’t stand on ceremony; he dribbled along the big box line and drilled an unstoppable effort past Dorde Petrovic in the Bournemouth goal for Liverpool’s second.
The game drifted into a bore that nobody would have bemoaned had referee Anthony Taylor blown for full-time on the hour mark to send everyone home early.
Instead, it was Liverpool manager Arne Slot who broke the monotony by introducing Wataru Endo and Andrew Robertson.
Immediately after Slot had slotted in those two, Bournemouth’s David Brooks sprung the Liverpool offside trap on his left and played a cross across for Antoine Semenyo. The English-born Ghanaian scored the easiest goal of the game and his team’s undeserved opener.
Immediately after Slot had slotted in those two, Bournemouth’s David Brooks sprung the Liverpool offside trap on his left and played a cross across for Antoine Semenyo. The English-born Ghanaian scored the easiest goal of the game and his team’s undeserved opener.
When Semenyo scored his second on 76 minutes, it was clear that Bournemouth had lulled their opponents into a false sense of security. The Ghanaian exposed Liverpool’s defensive frailties when he collected the ball from the edge of his own third and ran through a bemused defence to, again, that word, slot past the Brazilian in goal.
Obviously, Taylor is a wise man because had it been me in the middle, the whistle would have sounded at 50 minutes. Surely the fans around the stadium and the world would have missed the excitement of the subsequent 40 minutes. But for Taylor’s fastidious observation of the clock, those of the Liverpool persuasion got to see Federico Chiesa score the first league goal for the Merseyside club in the 88th minute. Not to be outdone, Mohamed Salah scored the fourth from a punt upfront that Bournemouth failed to defend.
Late Liverpool forward, Jota, together with his younger Andre Silva died in a car crash last month.
Final score: Liverpool 4, Bournemouth 2.
