Liverpool: Liverpool fans were treated with a roller coaster start to the season as late goals from Mo Salah and Federico Chiesa sealed a 4-2 win over Bournemouth at Anfield Friday.
On a bittersweet evening, which was accused of emotion after July -death by Liverpool tip Diogo Jota, newcomer Hugo Ekitike set a goal on his league debut to put the hosts ahead after 37 minutes, and Cody Gakpo doubled the lead in the 49th.
But Antoine Semenyo, who was the goal of racist abuse in the first half, led to a break in the game, withdrew one for the visitors in the 64th minute and finished a double 12 minutes later to rock Liverpool and shock the home fans.
However, replacement Chiesa Liverpool sent faithfully away with an 88th minute strike, after goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic jumped a ball into the box of Salah scoring deeply into extra time to wrap up the three points.
Salah chased the ball past the defense, before cutting inside and firing into the lower corner with a goal that set Egypt’s international joint four with Andy Cole on the early Premier League scorer’s list of 187.
An emotional Salah pointed to the sky and clapped two hands to mimic Jota’s shark target celebration.
He headed for the cup level after the last whistle and dried tears away as he welcomes the fans who sang Jotas song to the tune “Bad Moon Rising”.
The night started with an emotional minute silence for Jota and his brother Andre Silva, who died in a car accident. Fans fought back tears as they sang “You will never walk alone”.
Ekitike, connected from Eintracht Frankfurt, was the most impressive of manager Arne Slots near-season signings in an expense topped £ 300 million ($ 406.53 million).
“Obviously, I think it was a good performance I could do better,” said Ekitike – who held two fingers up one hand and made a zero with the other in a tribute to Liverpool’s Jota, who wore number 20 – after his goal.
“But the most important thing was to win, the mentality we showed. We would of course win tonight for the people who came and for diogo,” the 23-year-old added.
The game was stopped for several minutes after Bournemouth’s Ghana International Semenyo reported racist abuse.
“It’s totally unacceptable,” said Bournemouth captain Adam Smith. “Kind in shock to be honest that it happened. In this day and age it shouldn’t happen.
“I don’t know how Ant has played to be honest and come up with these goals … Something needs to be done. We will support him in there, and hopefully he will be okay.”
