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 of the Cherries’ goals as they came from down two 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 signee last summer who has barely been featured and has been linked with a move 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 signee Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo had earlier put the Reds up 2-0.
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 incident but played on and scored in the 64th and 76th minutes to draw Bournemouth level.
“I don’t know how Ant’s played on, to be honest, and come up with those goals,” said Bournemouth captain Adam Smith, who added that Semenyo was “a little bit down.”
Liverpool manager Arne Slot said the incident “takes the shine off” his team’s victory.
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 fans and players pay tribute to Diogo Jota ahead of the Premier League game against Bournemouth. Michael Steele/Getty Images
“The main emotion should be how impressive and powerful the tribute for Diogo was,” Slot told a news conference. “The banner the Kop showed, the way they sang ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone,’ the way they sung for Diogo throughout the game.
“It was all so impressive and so powerful.”
Liverpool had announced the £23 million ($31m) signing of 18-year-old Parma center 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 shaky.
It had begun so well with another Premier Leaguer debutant, Ekitike, starting to pay back his £69 million ($94m) transfer fee with a first-half goal, having also 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 goal-scoring 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.
An emotional Mohamed Salah claps along as Liverpool fans sing Diogo Jota’s song after the win over Bournemouth. Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
He then headed over before halftime, but his assimilation into the role vacated by Jota and Darwin Núñez, transferred to Al Hilal, was evident as Ekitike laid on the return pass for Gakpo to glide past a couple of defenders and stroke past Petrovic.
But when Slot replaced fullbacks Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, two of the four new signees making their debuts, Bournemouth clinically exploited the unfamiliarity of midfielder Wataru Endo playing at right back.
David Brooks raced down the left, and Konaté could not prevent him sending over a teasing, low cross that 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 signee Florian Wirtz to move 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 4-on-2 counterattack saw Semenyo fire home, only for Chiesa, already a cult hero despite his lack of action, to be the savior.
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.
Salah also repeated Jota’s two-armed celebration after his goal, and Ekitike and Gakpo also dedicated their goals to Jota.
“Normally at 2-2, everyone knows which player I look to at that moment in time. I would have loved to bring in Diogo Jota, but I could not, for terrible reasons,” Slot said.
“But tonight, the fans and the players did what he did for us many times in the past.”
Information from ESPN’s Beth Lindop, PA and The Associated Press was used in this report.
