Liverpool won a
frantic first game of the 2025-26 Premier League season on Friday
night. Check out all the best facts and Opta data in our Liverpool
vs Bournemouth
stats page.
A spirited Bournemouth performance was not enough for a point as
late goals from Federico
Chiesa and Mohamed
Salah saw Liverpool win 4-2 on the opening night of the 2025-26
Premier League season.
The hosts had looked to be in control after goals from Hugo
Ekitiké and Cody
Gakpo have given them a 2-0 lead at Anfield, only for a brace
from Antoine
Semenyo to set up a tense finish on Friday.
However, substitute Chiesa fired in an 88th-minute volley in
front of the Kop end to put Liverpool back ahead, before Salah
sealed things in stoppage time to clinch three points for the
Premier League champions in the first game of their title
defence.
It was a gutting way for Bournemouth to end the game after
dominating large parts of the second half, but Arne Slot’s side
showed the resilience that helped them win the title last season to
get over the line once more.
A poignant and impeccable minute’s silence was held before
kick-off to honour Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva
after their tragic passing last month.
Slot named four new faces in his lineup, making them the first
reigning champions to name as many as four players in their
opening-day starting XI who were making their Premier League debuts
for the club.
It was a relatively quiet start to the game, with Salah having
an early effort on goal, cutting inside and curling a shot to the
far post that was tipped over well by Bournemouth debutant
Djordje Petrovic.
The visitors’ first chance came moments later as another new
face, Adrien
Truffert, crossed for Semenyo but he could only fire over with
a first-time shot.
Bournemouth started brightly, but were perhaps fortunate when a
VAR check deemed Marcos
Senesi not to have denied Ekitiké a clear goalscoring
opportunity when he diverted the ball with his hand on the halfway
line.
They had another glorious chance in the 35th minute when
Adam Smith burst into the Liverpool penalty area down the right
and cut back for
Marcus Tavernier, but he could only scuff his shot gently into
the hands of Alisson,
who was making his 300th appearance for Liverpool.
The Cherries were made to pay for that wastefulness as just two
minutes later, Liverpool were ahead. Ekitiké played a give-and-go
with
Alexis Mac Allister, before working his way into the box and
finishing calmly past Petrovic.
The Frenchman could have had another soon after but he headed a
Gakpo cross over the bar.
It didn’t take long for the Reds to double their lead in the
second half. Ekitiké was involved again on the left as he squared
up the full-back before laying the ball back to Gakpo. The Dutchman
cut inside before placing a firm shot into the far corner.
It made Ekitiké the first Frenchman in Premier League history to
both score and assist on his debut in the competition.
It meant also meant Gakpo had scored or assisted in 10
consecutive Premier League starts at Anfield, becoming only the
second Liverpool player to achieve such a streak (after Salah, on
three separate occasions).
On the hour mark, Slot changed both of his full-backs, with
Wataru Endo and Andy Robertson replacing Jeremie Frimpong and Milos
Kerkez. It certainly didn’t have the intended impact as Bournemouth
raced down the left wing as David Brooks was played through and
played a perfect low pass into Semenyo to halve the deficit.
Andoni Iraola’s team started ramping up the pressure trying to
find an equaliser, and Evanilson headed over from a Truffert cross
when he probably should have done better.
That pressure eventually told, though, as Semenyo
counter-attacked from a sloppy Salah pass at the other end, and he
took full advantage of Ibrahima Konaté turning his back on him and
unleashed a left-footed shot past Alisson to make it 2-2.
It showed immense strength of character from Semenyo to turn the
game on his own, especially after allegedly suffering racist abuse
from a fan in the crowd in the first half, which was reported to
referee Anthony Taylor, who alerted the relevant authorities after
pausing the game.
Liverpool frantically tried to get back ahead, and were arguably
aided by Bournemouth sitting back trying to protect their point.
Chiesa was introduced from the bench by Slot, and repaid him with
his first ever Premier League goal. The Italian volleyed in a loose
ball as Bournemouth failed to clear a Salah cross to send to Kop
into ecstasy.
Salah had been frustrated in his aim to score on the opening day
again to that point, but he managed to do so late on as he ran onto
a long ball down the left from Wataru Endo, cut onto his right foot
and finished past Petrovic into the far corner.
The Egyptian extended his record of Matchday 1 goals in the
Premier League, becoming the first player to score 10 goals on
opening day in the competition. He has now scored at least once in
eight of his nine MD 1 games for the Reds.
There was relief from the hosts on the final whistle after being
given a real game by an impressive Bournemouth.
Bittersweet tears rolled down Salah’s face as he applauded the
Kop, who sang Diogo Jota’s song to celebrate the life of their
former player, and their victorious defending champions.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the
Liverpool vs Bournemouth stats from their Premier
League meeting at Anfield.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected
goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives
you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats
on the game as well.
Liverpool vs Bournemouth: Selected Post-Match
Facts
- Liverpool extended their unbeaten run on the opening day of a
league season to 13 games (W10 D3); only Chelsea have had a longer
run without defeat on MD1 in the competition’s history (18 from
1999-00 to 2016-17). - With his first Premier League goal, Federico Chiesa scored
Liverpool’s latest ever MD1 winning goal in the competition
(87:46), while it was the latest by any side in their opening game
of a season in the English top-flight since Diego Costa for Chelsea
against West Ham in 2016-17 (88:43). - Bournemouth have taken just one point from their nine Premier
League games at Anfield (D1 L8), an average of 0.11 per game. Only
at Manchester City do they have a poorer average on the road
against a side they have visited 5+ times in the competition (0
points in 8 games).
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