Credit: Imago

Chris Smith

Tue 5 August 2025 12:27, UK

Liverpool won the second of their double-header friendlies against Athletic Club 3-2 on Sunday in what was a day of attacking mastery from the Reds.

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Having already thrashed the Basque side 4-1 earlier in the day, the Anfield crowd then watched their side score another three goals.

Arne Slot‘s side ripped through Athletic Club in the second match, outshooting the visitors 17-8, including 10-3 in shots on target.

Mohamed Salah predictably opened the scoring on 14 minutes, but it was one of the Egyptian forward’s partners who stole the show.

Cody Gakpo has been in fine form this summer

Cody Gakpo was the man to deliver the win for Liverpool, bagging two second-half goals, either side of an unfortunate own goal, first pouncing on an Unai Simon mistake before beating the Spain ‘keeper with a low effort.

It was a menacing performance from Gakpo, who attempted four shots — and probably should have had at least a hat-trick — and created one big chance, while having seven touches in the opposition box and playing four passes into the final third (FotMob).

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The Netherlands international has been in and out of the starting XI during his time at Anfield, but has now scored four goals in four pre-season matches so far.

With Liverpool yet to replace the outgoing Luis Diaz, Gakpo may well find much more prominence in the team this season under compatriot Slot.

Gakpo’s form this summer and against Athletic Club has not gone unnoticed by supporters, who have made some bold ’20-goal’ predictions for him this season.

Gakpo posted his own message to social media after the match, with a selection of action shots of him from the win.

“Feels good to be back, Anfield,” Gakpo captioned his post, with heart and praying emojis.

Meanwhile, Slot has praised his side’s attacking performance across the two friendlies, while calling on his players to become even more clinical, given the number of other chances they missed.

“I think in both games we created a lot of chances, scored seven goals – four in the first, three in the second – so that’s very pleasing to see because we definitely didn’t score every chance we had,” said Slot (Liverpoolfc.com, 4 August).

“Especially in the second game in the first half, I think we could have scored a few goals more than we did.

So that pleased me most, the ability to create the chances and even to score seven goals over two games is also good.”

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