(Credit: Imago)

Jack Heath

Fri 15 August 2025 22:26, UK

Liverpool left it late to win against a plucky Bournemouth side as Arne Slot’s late substitutions led to two late goals to win 4-2.

Liverpool player ratings, winners and losers vs Bournemouth as Hugo Ekitike and 3 more superb	Two new signings feature in the winners and losers from Liverpool's opening day win over Bournemouth - opinion	Tottenham's 3 winners and 3 losers from Super Cup loss to PSG as Tel flops

The Reds were cruising for half the game after they went 2-0 up courtesy of Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo with the former continuing his Community Shield form.

Yet, two Antoine Semenyo counter-attack goals got the Cherries back in the game as it looked like Andoni Iraola’s side were on to get a well-deserved point.

However, super sub Federico Chiesa smashed in a loose ball to send Anfield crazy before a wonderful Mohamed Salah strike sealed the three points.

But, who were the winners and who were the losers in a thoroughly entertaining opening day to the 2025-26 Premier League season.

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After impressing in the Community Shield, the Frenchman continued in the same vein of form as he lit up Anfield.

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A well-taken goal and teeing up Gakpo for the Reds’ second goal, the former Eintracht Frankfurt man was everywhere up top.

Although the club are linked with Alexander Isak, they might not even need to pursue the Swede if Ekitike can maintain this kind of form.

The striker was sensational under the Anfield lights tonight (Credit: Imago)

Following the departure of Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich, the left-hand side is now completely open for the Dutchman and boy did he impress.

The ex-PSV wide man ran down the line with intent, cutting in to cause the Bournemouth defence a world of problems, leading to his first goal of the season already.

The Italian had a woeful debut season last time out, struggling to get any sort of game time after joining from Juventus.

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Subbed on in the 82nd minute, the number 14 rattled a loose ball home to put Liverpool back into the lead right at the end of the match.

Talk about a cracking super sub from the ex-Feyenoord manager!

I wrote a piece on how Florian Wirtz was showing similarities with Kai Havertz before he came to the Premier League and it looks like I wasn’t far off.

You could see during the match how the German was used to being given time and space in the Bundesliga to turn and find the killer pass yet Bournemouth’s high press smothered him.

Florian Wirtz v Bournemouth 15 AugustMinutes played82Goals0Assists0Possession lost 19Shots (on target)1 (0)(Source: Sofascore)

Physically, the former Bayer Leverkusen man got bullied and he’ll need to majorly up his game if he wants to compete in the top-flight.

Another new face who struggled on debut, the Hungarian was evidently nervous playing in front of the Anfield crowd.

He slid into tackles without staying on his feet which saw him pick up a yellow card in the process.

Hooked on 59 minutes, Slot was clearly not impressed with his new left-back and the former Cherry will need to show his new boss why he deserves to start going forward.

It was not the best start for the Hungary international on his league debut for the Reds (Credit: Imago)

Have the links between Marc Guehi and Liverpool got to the Frenchman?

It certainly appears that way.

The ex-RB Leipzig centre-back won only two of his five duels and was all over the place at the back, heavily relying on Virgil van Dijk to get him out of difficult situations.

We saw at the start of last season how Jarell Quansah quickly lost his starting spot after a poor 45 minutes on the opening game of last campaign – could Ibrahima Konate suffer the same fate?