{"id":347712,"date":"2025-08-15T23:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T23:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/347712\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T23:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T23:18:09","slug":"chiesa-and-salahs-late-show-earns-liverpool-dramatic-win-against-bournemouth-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/347712\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiesa and Salah\u2019s late show earns Liverpool dramatic win against Bournemouth | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool opened the new Premier League<\/a> season in triumph and in tears. Extreme emotions will accompany the champions throughout their title defence but were particularly apt on the night Anfield paid tribute to Diogo Jota and Arne Slot\u2019s side showed the incredible will-to-win that defines them.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Salah was inconsolable after the final whistle. Moments after sealing an enthralling victory over Bournemouth and recreating Jota\u2019s Baby Shark celebration, the Liverpool forward broke down in tears in front of the Kop as they sang in honour of the tragic Portugal international<\/a>. Jota\u2019s wife, Rute Cardoso, children and family had found the strength to be present and were welcomed with a sign that read: \u2018Rute, Dinis, Duarte, Matilda \u2013 Anfield will always be your home. You\u2019ll Never Walk Alone.\u2019 It was one moving moment among many as Anfield remembered their number 20 and his brother, Andr\u00e9 Silva, following their deaths in July.<\/p>\n

The headlines could have belonged to Federico Chiesa, who came off the bench to clinch the win and shatter Bournemouth<\/a> with an 88th-minute volley. It was his first Premier League goal for the club but, given the emotion, the high drama and unfortunately allegations of racist abuse towards Bournemouth forward Antoine Semenyo, Chiesa\u2019s vital contribution may be overlooked. Semenyo scored two excellent goals to haul Andoni Iraola\u2019s team level, and deservedly so, only for Chiesa\u2019s and Salah\u2019s late double act to rescue Liverpool.<\/p>\n

Hugo Ekitik\u00e9, Liverpool\u2019s recent \u00a369m signing<\/a> from Eintracht Frankfurt, impressed on his Premier League debut and opened the scoring. 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 Chiesa and 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha, underlined why interest in Alexander Isak remains. 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<\/a>, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain respectively this summer for a combined \u00a3144.8m. Their absences told defensively, but Iraola will take comfort from the quality of his side\u2019s overall display.<\/p>\n

Marcos Senesi was fortunate in the extreme to avoid a red card for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity with 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. It was a clear handball, so clear that Cody Gakpo picked up the ball to await the inevitable punishment. Instead, 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 after a trip on Florian Wirtz. Semenyo took possession and avoided a dangerous challenge from Kerkez before being tripped by Alexis Mac Allister. 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. The fan, in a wheelchair, was escorted out of the stadium at half-time by three police officers.<\/p>\n

Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 pays tribute to Diogo Jota after scoring Liverpool\u2019s first-half opener. Photograph: Liverpool FC\/Getty Images<\/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 Djordje 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 Ekitik\u00e9\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 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. There was a sense of inevitability about Bournemouth\u2019s equaliser and it arrived when Salah overhit a pass towards Dominik Szoboszlai. Hamed Traor\u00e8 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. The forward ended his outstanding run by finding the bottom corner of Alisson\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n

How Salah made amends. It was his cross that caused pandemonium inside the Bournemouth box and resulted in Chiesa volleying Liverpool back in front. In stoppage time Salah registered his customary opening day goal to put the result beyond doubt with a piercing finish beyond Petrovic. The Egypt international celebrated wildly by his standards. The tears that followed underlined the importance of this night to all at Liverpool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool opened the new Premier League season in triumph and in tears. Extreme emotions will accompany the champions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-347712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}