Liverpool launched the Premier League with a dramatic 4-2 win over Bournemouth at Anfield on Friday in an emotionally charged match featuring tributes to Diogo Jota and Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo reporting racial abuse.
The winger responded brilliantly with both the Cherries’ goals as they came from two down as Andoni Iraola’s side exposed the same defensive weaknesses Crystal Palace did in Sunday’s Community Shield victory.
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But forgotten man Federico Chiesa, Liverpool’s solitary signing last summer who has barely featured and whose future looked to be elsewhere, volleyed home his first league goal in the 88th minute before Mohamed Salah scored for the eighth time in nine opening-day fixtures.
Summer signing Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo had earlier put the Reds 2-0 up.
In between those goals, the game was briefly paused after Semenyo reported to referee Anthony Taylor in the 28th minute that he was targeted with racist language by a member of the crowd.
Semenyo, who is Black, needed to be consoled by teammates after the alleged incident but played on and scored in the 64th and 76th minutes to draw Bournemouth level.
It was the first competitive match at Anfield since Jota — a popular player for Liverpool — and his brother André Silva were killed in a car crash in Spain on July 3.
Ahead of kickoff, fans held up placards to spell out “DJ20” and “AS30” in two of the stands during a period of silence in honor of the Portuguese players.
Players from the Liverpool team stood arm-in-arm around the center circle, and staff and players from both clubs wore black armbands.
Liverpool had announced the £23million signing of 18-year-old Parma centre-back Giovanni Leoni before kickoff but it would be no surprise for this result to hasten the pursuit of Crystal Palace’s Marc Guéhi with Ibrahima Konaté, in particular, looking particularly shaky.
It had begun so well with another Premier Leaguer debutant Ekitike starting to pay back his £69 million transfer fee with a first-half goal, having scored last weekend.
Ekitike thought he had been denied by the season’s first VAR controversy after just 14 minutes when Marcos Senesi appeared to flick the ball away on the halfway line but VAR ruled it was not a clear handball or the denial of a goalscoring opportunity.
The France under-21 international then benefited from a more fortuitous touch off the defender, latching onto a mistake after his own miscontrol of Alexis Mac Allister’s pass to run through and comfortably send Djordje Petrovic the wrong way.
Ekitike extended his own tribute to Jota by signalling a two and a zero — Jota’s now-retired shirt number — with his fingers after his 37th minute goal.
He then headed over before half-time but his assimilation into the role vacated by Jota and Darwin Núñez, transferred to Al Hilal, was evident as he laid on the return pass for Gakpo to glide past a couple of defenders and stroke past Petrovic.
But when Slot replaced both full-backs Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, two of the four new signings making their debuts, Bournemouth clinically exploited the unfamiliarity of midfielder Wataru Endo playing at right-back.
David Brooks raced down the left and Konate could not prevent him sending over a teasing, low cross which Semenyo cleverly finished.
Slot made immediate changes, bringing on defender Joe Gomez despite just two days’ training after three weeks out with injury, to allow Endo to move into midfield and club-record signing Florian Wirtz moving to a false nine for Ekitike.
But when Salah, of all people, gave away possession on the edge of the opposition penalty area a fast four-on-two counter-attack saw Semenyo fire home, only for Chiesa, already a cult hero despite his lack of action, to be the saviour.
Salah completed the scoring in added-time and was last to leave the pitch, with tears in his eyes, having stood applauding the Kop singing Jota’s song.
Information from PA and The Associated Press was used in this report.
