Bournemouth forward Antoine Semenyo, who reported being racially abused by a Liverpool fan during the first half at Anfield, appeared to have delivered a point for Andoni Iraoli\u2019s side when hauling the visitors back from two goals down.<\/p>\n
An 88th-minute volley from Liverpool substitute Federico Chiesa, however, plus a stoppage time strike from Mohamed Salah conjured a rescue act for Arne Slot\u2019s champions. Salah was in tears after the final whistle as he stood in front of the Kop and absorbed a tribute to Diogo Jota.<\/p>\n
Liverpool entered the new campaign with anticipation and hope but also in grief. The club\u2019s first home Premier League game of the season was designated the moment to honour Diogo Jota and his brother Andr\u00e9 Silva following their tragic deaths in a car crash in July.<\/p>\n
Liverpool paid its respects in exemplary fashion, as the club and its fans have done throughout. Bournemouth fans also played their part in a moving tribute, raising a banner that read \u2018Diogo Jota 20 Together\u2019 before kick-off and joining in the applause that thundered around the stadium in the 20th minute.<\/p>\n
Jota\u2019s wife, Rute Cardoso, children and family found the strength to be present at Anfield. A banner along the front of The Kop welcomed them. \u2018Rute, Dinis, Duarte, Matilda \u2013 Anfield will always be your home. You\u2019ll Never Walk Alone.\u2019 A mosaic on The Kop read \u2018DJ 20\u2019. Another on the lower tier of the Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand read \u2018AS 30\u2019, commemorating Silva\u2019s number for his club in Portugal, Penafiel.<\/p>\n
Both sets of players wore black armbands and Anfield observed an impeccable moment of silence before kick-off. Then it was down to business.<\/p>\n
![\"Liverpool's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/VTZMC7ARNHWYNBJDBTWYY2QXAU.jpg\")
Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo celebrates his goal, signalling ’20’ with his hands in tribute to team-mate Diogo Jota. Photograph: Peter Byrne\/PA <\/p>\n
Ekitik\u00e9, the recent \u00a369 million signing from Eintracht Frankfurt, instantly impressed, taking down a long ball from Virgil van Dijk and releasing Mohamed Salah in space. Bournemouth\u2019s new goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic tipped over Salah\u2019s first trademark effort of the campaign.<\/p>\n
Ekitik\u00e9 captivated Anfield long before his opening goal. His touch, movement and pace ensured a seamless assimilation into the Liverpool attack but one look at Slot\u2019s substitute bench, where his striking options consisted of Federico Chiesa and 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha, underlined why interest in Alexander Isak remains.<\/p>\n
For all the additions to the Liverpool ranks and departures from the Bournemouth squad, however, it was the visitors who looked the more enterprising team prior to Ekitik\u00e9\u2019s breakthrough.<\/p>\n
Bournemouth have sold Milos Kerkez, Dean Huijsen and Illia Zabarnyi to the powerhouses of Liverpool, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain respectively this summer for a combined \u00a3144.8 million. Their absences told defensively, but Iraola will take comfort from the quality of his side\u2019s overall display. Semenyo should have done better than to side-foot over Alisson\u2019s goal when Kerkez\u2019s replacement, Adrien Truffert, swept an inviting cross along the face of the Liverpool six-yard box.<\/p>\n
Marcus Tavernier had another fine chance from Adam Smith\u2019s pull back but scuffed a shot straight at Alisson, who was making his 300th appearance for Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Marcos Senesi was fortunate in the extreme to avoid a red card for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity with only 13 minutes gone. Attempting to intercept a pass intended for Ekitik\u00e9, the Bournemouth central defender miscued a clearance from his thigh on to his fingertips before clawing the ball away from the Liverpool striker, who would have been through on goal.<\/p>\n
It was a clear handball, so clear that Cody Gakpo picked up the ball to await the inevitable punishment. Instead, and for some inexplicable reason, referee Anthony Taylor awarded Bournemouth a free-kick for a handball by Gakpo. It was some escape.<\/p>\n
Slot was further enraged when Taylor waved play on following a trip on Florian Wirtz. Semenyo took possession and avoided a dangerous challenge from Kerkez before being tripped by Alexis Mac Allister.<\/p>\n
![\"Bournemouth's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4IGTR6KGG73JCVPWNGR6L6FIZE.jpg\")
Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo celebrates scoring his second goal of the game. Photograph: Peter Byrne\/PA <\/p>\n
Moments later, as the Bournemouth forward shaped to take a throw-in, a Liverpool fan moved to the front of the Main Stand and berated him. Semenyo informed Taylor he had been racially abused and the game was paused as the match official called over both managers and stewards. A fan in a wheelchair was escorted out of the stadium at half-time by three police officers.<\/p>\n
Ekitik\u00e9 gave Liverpool the lead shortly after the depressing incident when, having exchanged passes with Mac Allister, he ran at Senesi and benefited from a ricochet off the defender to race through on goal. The France under-21 international was coolness personified as he sent Petrovic to his right and rolled a finish past the keeper\u2019s left. Gakpo doubled the champions\u2019 advantage early in the second half when he received Ekitike\u2019s pass on the edge of the area and cut across two Bournemouth players before finding the bottom corner.<\/p>\n
Liverpool were in the comfort zone, and Bournemouth almost made them pay. Semenyo twice punished loose Liverpool defending \u2013 and it had been a feature of their entire performance \u2013 to haul the visitors level. The Ghana international was unmarked as he swept home David Brooks\u2019 low centre from the left.<\/p>\n
There was a sense of inevitability about Bournemouth\u2019s equaliser and it arrived when Salah overhit a pass towards Dominik Szoboszlai. Hamed Traore intercepted and released Semenyo, who set off from deep inside his own half and did not meet a challenge of note until reaching the edge of the Liverpool penalty area.<\/p>\n
The forward ended his outstanding run by finding the bottom corner of Alisson\u2019s goal. How Salah would make amends. It was his cross that caused pandemonium inside the Bournemouth box and resulted in substitute Chiesa volleying Liverpool back into the lead in the 88th minute.<\/p>\n
In stoppage time Salah registered his customary opening day goal to put the result beyond doubt with a piercing finish beyond Petrovic. The Premier League is back, and late drama Liverpool are too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Premier League: Liverpool 4 (Ekitike 37, Gakpo 49, Chiesa 88, Salah 90+4) Bournemouth 2 (Semenyo 64, 76) The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[2102,18,19,17,560,795,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-1713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-bournemouth-fc","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-liverpool-fc","13":"tag-premier-league","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}