Copyright dailystar
Liverpool ended their run of four straight defeats on a good night for Arne Slot’s side in the Champions League. The Reds headed to take on Eintracht Frankfurt fresh off their defeat to Manchester United in the Premier League, but Liverpool put the record straight despite facing major early pressure in Germany before rallying to cruise to a 5-1 win, thanks to goals from Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai. Slot’s decision to drop Mohamed Salah to the bench took the headlines before kick-off, but his decision was vindicated with the Egyptian’s absence from the starting line-up not holding the Reds back. The Dutchman found himself in his first real crisis at Anfield, with the Reds heading to Germany on the back of four consecutive defeats and sprung the chances, most notably naming Ekitike and Alexander Isak from the off, as the former returned to his old home to play off the Swede. Frankfurt boss Dino Toppmoller also made major changes to his team as he named his two top scorers, Can Uzun and Jonathan Burkardt, on the bench, citing tactical reasons as he revealed his team would be set up to play on the counter. Speaking to TNT Sports before kick-off, the Frankfurt boss said: “We need to be good in counter-attacks so we put [Jean-Matteo] Bahoya and [Ansgar] Knauff up front because they have incredible speed.” And that approach created the first opening of the game when Giorgi Mamardashvili was forced into a smart save just six minutes into the game. Ansgar Knauff was able to run off the shoulder of Ibrahima Konate and fire a low shot across goal, which the Georgian was down quickly to keep out. However, this piece could so easily be about the naïve way that Frankfurt set up and approached the match. The Bundesliga side took the lead after 26 minutes through former Leeds right-back Rasmus Kristensen and looked to be adding serious pressure on Slot, with the Reds fearing slipping to five defeats in a row. But they needn’t worry as Frankfurt threw the game away by playing into the hands of Liverpool, exactly the way Slot would have been hoping for. Hugo Ekitike levelled the score on 35 minutes as the play went from one box to the other in a matter of seconds. Reclaiming possession in his own penalty area, Andy Robertson played Ekitike through on goal with a straight pass as the Frankfurt defence found themselves unforgivably out of position. The Frenchman showed great nerve to slot home, and the game from that point was all Liverpool’s. Two towering headers from Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate completed the nine minute turnaround as the Reds raced into a 3-1 lead at the break. While the quality of delivery, determination to win the ball, and Robertson’s sneaky play to block goalkeeper Michael Zetterer from coming off his line, will please Slot. All the goals on the night were a nightmare from a defensive perspective. The second half was nothing but a procession and Gakpo made it four shortly after the hour mark. Frankfurt again were too casual in and out of possession and Szoboszlai was allowed to turn and thread a ball through to Florian Wirtz under no pressure. The £116million man took a huge step forward in his own confidence as he squared across the face of goal for the Dutchman to tap in, providing his first assist for his new club on his 11th appearance. Szoboszlai then made it five with a driven finish from outside the area as the game turned into a question of how many Liverpool could get. But despite the introduction of Salah, who was desperate to score as he wasted two late chances to add more late goals, the game ticked along to its six-goal conclusion. The only negative tonight for Slot will be the injury that Jeremie Frimpong sustained in the first-half. The £29million summer signing appeared to suffer a hamstring problem and had to be replaced inside 20 minutes. He looks set to join Ryan Gravenberch on the injury table as he missed the match having picked up an issue in the defeat against Ruben Amorim’s side.
