Goals from Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah secured a comeback win for Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday.
The Reds had gone behind inside two minutes when Antoine Semenyo opened the scoring but, after Salah scored following a missed penalty, the home side began to dominate the game. Diaz would give Liverpool the lead before Jota’s second-half goal secured all three points.
Amazingly, inside 50 seconds Bournemouth had the ball in the back of the net when a defensive mix-up allowed Jaidon Anthony to steal in and tap home into an empty net. The wide player, however, was deemed to have been offside when the ball was played over the top of the Liverpool defence. It was a wake-up call for the Reds, but it was a wake-up call that wasn’t heeded.
Just one minute later Bournemouth found the back of the net once again and, this time, the goal would stand. The Cherries capitalised on some incredibly sloppy play from Trent Alexander-Arnold in the middle of the park to win the ball back and subsequently make their way into the Liverpool box. After Dominic Solanke saw the ball flicked away from his foot by Andy Robertson, Semenyo reacted well to fire past Alisson and into the net.
The frenetic start to the game at Anfield continued thereafter, with the Reds going up the other end and hitting the crossbar through Virgil van Dijk. The new captain rose highest from a Robertson corner kick, but was unable to direct his header into the top corner.
Liverpool finally found a leveller in the 27th minute through the brilliant Diaz. After being found by Jota with a pull-back cross, the Colombian flicked the ball up to himself and fired an audacious overhead kick into the top right corner. A truly stunning goal.
That moment of brilliance from Diaz sparked the Reds into life and, within five minutes of equalising, they were ahead. Salah saw a penalty kick, won by Dominik Szoboszlai who was chopped down clumsily by Joe Rothwell, be well saved by Neto but the Egyptian spared his own blushes by tapping home the rebound.
As expected, it was all Liverpool at the start of the second half, with Salah and Cody Gakpo both seeing half chances fall their way – Salah’s was saved by Neto, while Gakpo’s was well blocked by Illia Zabarnyi.
Things took a turn in the 57th minute however when, on his Anfield debut, Alexis Mac Allister was shown a straight red for a challenge on Ryan Christie. The Argentine was a fraction late to the ball and caught Christie high on his shin with his studs.
The red card didn’t affect proceedings too much as Liverpool made it 3-1 just four minutes after going down to ten men. Jota stole in quickest inside the six-yard box to tap home the ball after Neto saved a long-range Szoboszlai effort.
Bournemouth did have chances to find reduce the arrears through substitutes Kieffer Moore and Hamed Traore late in the game. Both forwards were found in the heart of the Liverpool penalty area unmarked with clever balls from the right flank, and both spurned their opportunities on goal – Moore seeing his balloon over the bar and Traore seeing his well saved by Alisson.
GK: Alisson – 6/10 – A very lucky man that Anthony’s early strike was ruled out. Made amends with a few good saves late in the game.
RB: Trent Alexander-Arnold – 5/10 – Lost the ball carelessly in the lead up to Bournemouth’s opener.
CB: Ibrahima Konate – 5/10 – A bit (a lot) all over the place in the first half.
CB: Virgil van Dijk – 5/10 – Hit the crossbar but looked nervy at times defensively.
LB: Andy Robertson – 6/10 – Had his work cut out for him in the first half, and generally did well.
CM: Dominik Szoboszlai – 8/10 – Won a penalty for his side on his Anfield debut and was generally very, very impressive throughout.
CM: Alexis Mac Allister – 4/10 – Sent off in his home debut.
CM: Cody Gakpo – 6/10 – Looked a bit more comfortable in midfield this week, but it can’t be a long-term solution for Klopp.
RW: Mohamed Salah – 6/10 – Tapped home a rebound after his missed a penalty.
ST: Diogo Jota – 7/10 – Stabbed home Liverpool’s third and played particularly well in the second half.
LW: Luis Diaz – 8/10 – Scored a quite brilliant goal. Always a threat on the flank.
Substitutes
SUB: Wataru Endo (63′ for Gakpo) – 6/10 – Tidy when introduced.
SUB: Harvey Elliott (76′ for Jota) – 6/10
SUB: Joe Gomez (76′ for Alexander-Arnold) – 6/10
SUB: Darwin Nunez (86′ for Salah) – N/A
SUB: Kostas Tsimikas (86′ for Diaz) – N/A
Manager
Jurgen Klopp – 3/10 – Simply put, Klopp’s new tactical set-up is a complete abomination but his players are brilliant so Liverpool won this game.
GK: Neto – 7/10 – Made a brilliant stop from the penalty and was unfortunate to see the rebound go in.
RB: Max Aarons – 5/10 – When Diaz is on form there’s few right-backs in the league who can cope.
CB: Illia Zabarnyi – 6/10 – Made a few decent blocks.
CB: Marcos Senesi – 4/10 – A difficult afternoon trying to track Jota’s movement.
LB: Milos Kerkez – 5/10 – Got forward well at times in the first half, but struggled in the second.
CM: Philip Billing – 5/10 – In the wars throughout.
CM: Joe Rothwell – 4/10 – His sloppy challenge gifted Liverpool their second goal.
AM: Ryan Christie – 5/10 – Didn’t have an impact in the final third.
RW: Antoine Semenyo – 7/10 – Scored a great goal to open the scoring. By far the Cherries’ best player.
ST: Dominic Solanke – 6/10 – Made life difficult for Liverpool’s centre-backs on the day.
LW: Jaidon Anthony – 6/10 – Exploited the space in behind Alexander-Arnold at times.
Substitutes
SUB: Justin Kluivert (63′ for Christie) – 5/10 – He didn’t do a massive amount after being introduced.
SUBL Kieffer Moore (63′ for Anthony) – 5/10 – Missed a decent chance late on.
SUB: David Brooks (76′ for Semenyo) – 5/10
SUB: Lloyd Kelly (76′ for Rothwell) – 5/10
SUB: Hamed Traore (84′ for Senesi) – 6/10 – Forced Alisson into a good save.
Manager
Andoni Iraola – 6/10 – Set up his team well, but they just ultimately ran out of steam in the second half.
Player of the match: Dominik Szoboszlai (Liverpool)
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