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FRIDAY | OCT 24, 2025

Malaysian Paper

Reds back to winning ways to winning ways

Ekitike nets on Frankfurt return as Liverpool break losing streak in style

H UGO EKITIKE scored on his return to Eintracht Frankfurt as Liverpool ended their four-match losing streak with a confident 5-1 Champions League comeback victory in Germany. The France international, who scored 26 times in 64 matches for the Bundesliga side before a £69 million (RM400m) summer move, struck the crucial blow which got his new team back into the match after they had conceded for the eighth game in a row. He outshone British record signing Alexander Isak, who still looks short of sharpness, with the duo paired together for the first time as head coach Arne Slot opted for something different in an Ű BY CARL MARKHAM AND WILL CASTLE

Cody Gakpo scores Liverpool’s fourth goal past Eintracht Frankfurt keeper Michael Zetterer during yesterday’s Champions League match at Deutsche Bank Park. – REUTERSPIX

attempt to change their fortunes. And with Florian Wirtz also starting, the Dutchman had put his faith in £300 million-worth (RM1.74b) of new talent to stop their rot, meaning Mohamed Salah was on the bench as he was for the last Champions League away game against Galatasaray. But it was centrebacks Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima

Konate who delivered the killer blows with free headers from corners just before half-time as Liverpool finally started to deliver on set-pieces. Wirtz came into his own in the second half with assists for Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai to cap a happy return to Germany for him too. If ever there was opposition to play, faced with avoiding your worst run in 73 years, it was Frankfurt, who are even more open than Liverpool – conceding 18 in the previous five matches and not keeping a clean sheet in the last nine, letting in three or more in five of the last seven. Incredibly, after winning their opening Champions League match 5-1, game, Slot said: “I saw a lot of similarities in the last few weeks, in the last few games we played. I also saw some differences. “The similarities were that we already create a few chances before we conceded the first one and the first chance we conceded was usually a goal. “In the end it turned out to be the only chance we conceded today. Why was that? Because we went 3-1 up and so then it’s easier to control the game than when you’re 1-0 down all the time. “I’ve said here a few times telling you guys how important set-pieces are, how important the balance at set-pieces is. “Now we were able to score two so you go 3 1 up at half-time because you score two set pieces. “That is a big, big, big difference and you go in at half-time at 1-1 with still the same amount Frankfurt have lost the last two by the same score. That possibly influenced Slot’s decision to go with two strikers as Liverpool offered “the perfect response” to their recent form. Commenting after the

Isak in the first half. “You try to prepare players for once-a-week football. But if you are Liverpool then you play every three days or normally three times in eight days, because we’ve been unfortunate this season that we have to play three times in seven days,” Slot said in reference to the injuries. “Then you try to prepare for that programme, which is not always so easy if you don’t have a pre-season (Isak). “That’s what we tried to do and we thought

he was well prepared for that. But the margins in the top are small. “I’m hoping that this doesn’t have to be that bad because if, if, if he would be out now for a few weeks, that would put him back. So let’s wait. “Jeremie is a hamstring issue. He came back from a hamstring injury a few weeks ago and played for the national team one game, came back to us and now unfortunately after 10, 15 minutes, I don’t know, he had to go off.” – The Independent/Agencies

of chances, but people will judge us definitely differently when you don’t score them. “The biggest exception for me today compared to the other games we’ve played was the playing style of our opponent. “We got some energy out of the moments we could press them, which in the last four or five games we played we were not able to press the opponent because the ball wasn’t on the ground, it was in the air.” The evening was slightly soured, however, by potential injuries to Jeremie Frimpong and

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