Liverpool’s Hugo Ekitike scored a ruthless breakaway goal against his former team in a 5-1 Champions League thrashing of Eintracht Frankfurt that ended the Reds’ woeful streak of four consecutive losses across all competitions.
Arne Slot’s side finally found some form after a dismal run of results, with Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai also finding the net in a one-sided encounter.
The Liverpool coach rang the changes, with Mohamed Salah starting on the bench, and they looked much improved on their recent displays with summer signing Florian Wirtz providing two assists on his return to Germany.
The hosts started well and opened the scoring when Rasmus Kristensen struck in the 26th minute, firing past the outstretched hands of goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili and in off the far post.
But Ekitike drew Liverpool level in the 35th minute, collecting a long pass from Andy Robertson and racing from the halfway line before calmly slotting through the legs of goalkeeper Michael Zetterer.
Ekitike, signed by Liverpool for 69 million pounds ($93.65 million) in July, did not celebrate the goal in a show of respect for his old club.
Soon after, Van Dijk and Konate headed home from corners in the 38th and 43rd minutes, aided by slack marking from Frankfurt, to make it three goals for Liverpool in nine minutes.
Liverpool did not let up in the second half and Gakpo extended their lead in the 66th minute with a sidefoot finish off Wirtz’s cross.
Wirtz then teed up Szoboszlai, who added a fifth goal four minutes later on a night that turned ugly for the home side when he drilled a low, hard shot from just outside the box into the bottom corner. – Reuters
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