At the end Anfield bounced with joy. A game seemingly thrown away was rescued with two minutes to spare by the balance, deftness and timing of substitute Federico Chiesa.
On a night of very good goals, the Italian’s was much smarter and tougher to execute than it first looked. After that came something altogether more common, an opening day goal in added time from Mo Salah. This was his tenth such goal in his years at Liverpool.
It all gave Arne Slot’s defending champions a victory on a night when they wanted to win so badly for their fallen soul mate Diogo Jota. From that point of view, in the presence of Jota’s widow, it was a fabulous and fitting ending.
Beyond that, however, this was very much an imperfect night.
Liverpool not only lost a two-goal second half lead and defended raggedly far too often but also have to digest something altogether more real and unseemly going forward after Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo claimed in the first half he had been racially abused by a home fan on the front row of the Main Stand.
The game was stopped briefly with the score at 0-0 as referee Anthony Taylor was made aware of what had allegedly happened. At half-time, meanwhile, three police officers were seen escorting a man in a wheelchair down the touchline after appearing to view footage of the incident on a mobile phone.
Federico Chiesa stepped up when it mattered at Anfield on Friday evening to score his first Premier League goal
It came before Mo Salah sealed the win for the Reds, making it 4-2 late on with his right foot
After throwing away a 2-0 lead and what seemed like a victory, at the end Anfield bounced with joy
We will hear much more that for sure just as we will take time to digest a game of fluctuating fortunes.
For a while one of Liverpool’s seven new signings seemed set to write the story as French forward Hugo Ekitike scored a debut league goal late in the opening half. The 23-year-old had a very good night indeed and looks a natural Anfield fit. Indeed when Cody Gakpo scored a second shortly after half-time here, the result seemed set.
But Slot’s team had been poor across the back all night and when Bournemouth broke twice to score and haul themselves level, it was Semenyo doing the damage both times.
For a good while this then looked like a game that had slipped beyond the home team but Slot’s side did not win last season’s title by accident and by home time, their season was up and running.
The tributes before the game to Jota and his brother Andre Silva, lost to a car accident last month, had been heartfelt and perfectly formed.
Banners and scarves carrying their names will be waved and worn on the Kop for many weeks and months after this evening. The Liverpool anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, on the other hand, has rarely, if ever, been sung with as much depth and beauty as it was here. In the away end, meanwhile, Bournemouth supporters held aloft a tribute of their own.
As Slot’s predecessor Jurgen Klopp said last year, football is the most important of the unimportant things in life and that was how it felt here for a while.
Live sport does have an ability to sweep you up and hold you, however, and it wasn’t long before the home supporters were lost in the excitement of seeing their new-look team in Premier League action for the first time.
The match was paused at 0-0 after Antoine Semenyo reported being racially abused by a member of the crowd to the referee
The Bournemouth winger went onto fire home twice to get his side back in the game
With Ekitike playing through the middle and Florian Wirtz occupying space behind him as a number ten – while wearing the seven of Kevin Keegan and Kenny Dalglish – Liverpool were fluent when in possession almost immediately.
Ekitike has a maturity that was immediately apparent in the calmness of his link up play. Happy to come towards the ball, the French forward twice turned early to bring team-mates in to play. On one such occasion, Salah was able to take possession and work new Bournemouth goalkeeper Dorde Petrovic with a classic curled shot. From the corner, the ball was recycled and Virgil van Dijk headed over when he may have scored.
There was much to like about all that. But when they didn’t have the ball, Liverpool much were less secure. Left-back Milos Kerkez struggled a little against his former club and was on his heels in the sixth minute when Semenyo eased past him to divert a cross over and into the Kop.
Ibrahima Konate then played a back pass straight out for a corner while Bournemouth’s Evanilson was able to flick a delivery from the right across the Liverpool goal with more ease than he may have expected.
What all this made for was entertainment. Liverpool carried a threat without having everything their own way. As much as Ekitike looked a natural fit, Kerkez – later to be booked for a lunge on Adam Smith – was struggling and so, to a lesser degree, was Wirtz.
The stoppage that followed the allegation made by Semenyo lasted about three minutes and seemed to unsettle Liverpool more than it did their opponents.
Hugo Ekitike opened the scoring for the Reds with his first Premier League goal after joining in the summer
Cody Gakpo made it two for the Reds before half-time
Soon after Alex Scott reached the byline and pulled the ball back only for Marcus Tavernier to shoot weakly. Not long after that, however, Liverpool were ahead.
Ekitike maybe had a little fortune as he bustled through and beyond a poor challenge from Marcos Senesi but the calmness of the side footed finish with his right foot was clear.
Already earning his place in the affections of the Liverpool fans, Ekitike could have scored again almost immediately only to head over when a Gakpo cross found him leaping high at the far post.
The second goal arrived soon enough, mind. Only four minutes had been played in the second half when Gakpo began a lateral run across the penalty area from left to right. It felt as though a Bournemouth player would stop him at any moment but nobody seemed to want the job and the Dutch international’s low right foot finish to Petrovic’s left was as accurate as his new team-mate’s had been in the opening period.
Liverpool were growing in confidence and as such were increasingly dangerous in possession as Bournemouth started to seek breakaways and leave space. Alexis MacAllister worked Petrovic from distance – the goalkeeper tipping over – and – in the 63rd minute – Wirtz span on a half chance in the penalty area and pulled a shot inches wide.
Liverpool’s victory came on a day where supporters remembered Diogo Jota. Mo Salah was in tears in front of the Kop after the final whistle
Jota, who wore No 20 during his time at Anfield, tragically died in a car crash six weeks ago
The game, it must be said, felt rather over. But it wasn’t. Within a minute, one of those Bournemouth breaks bore fruit as David Brooks crossed low from the left and Semenyo got ahead of Van Dijk and substitute Andrew Robertson to score from eight yards. Soon after that, Van Dijk blocked crucially from Brooks as Liverpool wobbled across the back. Then, they fell over. Salah couldn’t find Dominik Szoboszlai with a short pass on the edge of the Bournemouth area with fifteen minutes left and when the Cherries broke in number they had men over. Semenyo it was who carried the ball three-quarter the length of the field and as everybody waited for him to pass it, he wrong-footed everyone and beat Alisson in the Liverpool goal easily. It was another terrific Bournemouth goal and one they had grown to thoroughly deserve.
Liverpool looked cooked but somehow rescued things right at the end. Chiesa reacted brilliantly and athletically to a dropping ball to screw a right foot volley in from ten yards with two minutes left while Salah’s goal was typical of him as he danced through to score low across the goalkeeper. The Egyptian celebrated as though last week’s missed penalty at Wembley have affected him more than we had thought.
