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69 min: Tavernier wins another corner down the left. Liverpool deal with it easily enough, but the hosts don’t look comfortable now. Bournemouth sniffing around for an equaliser. Should they get one, you’d have a hard job arguing that they don’t deserve it.
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68 min: Brooks and Tavernier have caused Liverpool quite a few problems down the left. They combine to win a corner off Konate. Alisson claims it, and then skelps a long kick down the inside-right for Salah, who has the opportunity to break into the box and shoot, but he’s out of sorts and runs into trouble. The ball rolls apologetically out for a goal kick.
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66 min: Wirtz tries to summon an instant response with a couple of crosses from the right. Neither are up to much. He’s been quiet on his Premier League debut so far.
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GOAL! Liverpool 2-1 Bournemouth (Semenyo 64)
Szoboszlai loses the ball and suddenly Brooks is sent racing down the left flank. Brooks curls a low cross just behind Van Dijk, who is out of the picture. Semenyo arrives and dinks over Alisson. What a break, what a cross, and what a finish!
Bournemouth are right back in this. Photograph: Robin Jones/AFC Bournemouth/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 16.29 EDT
63 min: … but then another Liverpool goal would put the lid on it. Szoboszlai combines with Salah down the right and rolls a pass across the face of the box. Wirtz tickles a first-time shot towards the bottom left. It rolls inches wide. Petrovic probably had it covered, but it was a close-run thing.
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62 min: Semenyo wins a corner down the right. When it’s sent in, Konate bashes a header clear. The visitors are still very much in this. One goal – and they’ve deserved one this evening – would change the atmosphere totally.
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60 min: A double change for Liverpool, and they change both of their full-backs. Kerkez and Frimpong depart, with Robertson and – slightly surprisingly – Endo taking their places.
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59 min: Tavernier slips Brooks into space down the inside-left channel. He dinks a cross infield. Alisson flaps it away from danger, then Frimpong blooters a clearance into the nearest blue shirt and back out for a goal kick.
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58 min: Gakpo barrels in from the left and for a moment it looks like he’ll take another shy at goal. He’s earned the right, but flashes a cross over to Salah, free on the right. A generous gesture, with the rather large caveat of being seriously overhit. Goal kick.
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56 min: Smith thinks he’s broken into space down the right, but he’s skittled Gakpo earlier in the move. Bournemouth are putting their heart and soul into this.
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54 min: Brooks gets the better of Frimpong down the left, then gives the ball to Tavernier, who lashes a dangerous cross through the Liverpool six-yard box. Only problem for Bournemouth is, there are no blue shirts in there.
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53 min: … but it’s just a word. And nothing comes of the corner. If your team had Frimpong, Van Dijk, Konaté, Salah, Gakpo, and Ekitike on the pitch, then why would you racially abuse Semenyo?” wonders Andy (not that one) Flintoff. “Unless you feel that the former six players shouldn’t be playing for your club either. Utterly brainless and the fan should have the book thrown at them, or at least a ban with their season ticket torn up with no refund.”
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52 min: Mac Allister, near the Bournemouth D, takes a touch to the right to make some space, then unleashes a fierce riser towards the top left. It’s heading in, but Petrovic fingertips over. Before the corner can be taken, there’s a shoving match in the six-yard box involving Salah and Smith, the latter grabbing some shirt, the former taking umbrage with a shove. The referee wants a word.
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51 min: Szoboszlai rolls a pass down the right for Salah, who swings an outside-of-boot cross into the mixer. Petrovic palms it away acrobatically with a couple of red shirts lurking. The hosts have their tails properly up for the first time this evening.
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GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Bournemouth (Gakpo 49)
Ekitike turns provider. He makes ground down the inside-left channel and cuts back to Gakpo, who dribbles across the face of the box. It looks as though he’s lost his opportunity to shoot, but he takes another touch to make enough room to whip a low shot into the bottom right. Fine goal. Ekitike is making quite the impression.
Cody Gakpo makes it two-nil to the champions. Liverpool have come out fighting in the second half. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PAShare
Updated at 16.14 EDT
47 min: … from which Ekitike heads over from six yards. Again. Something to work on at training, by the looks of it.
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Bournemouth get the second half underway. Liverpool soon come at them, Wirtz attempting to release Ekitike down the middle. Smith is forced to slide out for a corner …
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Updated at 16.07 EDT
As for the Senesi handball incident … here’s what PGMOL have to say. Now. They’ve changed their tack from earlier, when it was argued that the ball ricocheted accidentally onto the defender’s arm. Now DOGSO is the thrust. Meanwhile replays suggest the Brooks-Mac Allister incident seemed to be more 50-50 clumsiness than anything else.
#LIVBOU – 13’
The referee’s call of no red card to Senesi was checked and confirmed by VAR – with the action deemed not to be a clear handball offence nor denial of a goal scoring opportunity (DOGSO), due to the distance from goal.
— Premier League Match Centre (@PLMatchCentre) August 15, 2025
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Sky have shown some pictures of Antoine Semenyo looking utterly broken after making his complaint of receiving racial abuse from a crowd member to the referee. His captain Adam Smith coming across to give his friend, staring sadly at the ground, a hug of support. Gary Neville says: “It’s despicable … I can’t begin to think what’s going through someone’s mind … it’s a sorry state.” Jamie Carragher adds: “The amount of campaigns we have … it’s shocking to see an incident like that … rightly reported to the referee.”
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HALF TIME: Liverpool 1-0 Bournemouth
It’s been fast, furious, fun, and Bournemouth will consider themselves unfortunate to be trailing. They could also have had a penalty late on in that half … though having said that, they could also very easily have been reduced to ten men after 13 minutes. So it’s swings and roundabouts. If all the other Premier League halves this season are as full-on as this one, we’ll be in for quite the season.
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45 min +3: The match switches into Basketball Mode. Brooks competes for a high ball in the Liverpool box. Mac Allister slides in from the side and whips him over. No penalty, apparently, though you’ve seen them given. Then Liverpool break. Salah romps in from the right and should either find Ekitike in the middle, or feed Szoboszlai on the overlap to his right. But does neither, and his eventual shot is blocked. What a waste. Then Bournemouth counter the counter, and Evanilson slaps a low shot wide left from the edge of the box. Wowsers.
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Updated at 15.54 EDT
45 min +2: Mac Allister clumsily skittles Scott as the Bournemouth midfielder advances down the inside right. Another free kick for the Cherries in a dangerous position … and it’s another wasted, Tavernier blasting it witlessly into the wall with options elsewhere in the box.
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45 min +1: The first of three additional first-half minutes passes by. “As a resident of Frankfurt and follower of the Eintracht, I can confirm that your entries at 37 and 39 minutes sum up Ekitiké to a tee,” writes Harvey Mayne. “Yes, he scores goals, but he misses far more and bad misses as well. I am sure I will regret him leaving later this season but a big part of me is not sorry to see him go.”
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45 min: Szoboszlai, quarterbacking from deep, nearly releases Salah down the right with a raking pass. But Petrovic is wise to the idea, and races from his area to blooter clear. For a nanosecond there, Salah’s eyes had lit up.
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44 min: Brooks swings the resulting free kick in low. It’s a terrible delivery, and easily hacked clear. “It happens in Europe, South America, North America,” begins Mary Waltz. “There is an element of the football community that is no longer ashamed of expressing vulgar racist insults, and homophobic attitudes. They don’t hide it, and they have the internet to find common ground with bigots all over the world. ‘Lighten up, it’s just a joke, don’t be such a snowflake, free speech.’ No, we won’t ignore it, it’s disgusting, and if you rationalise this behaviour or defend it you are disgusting as well.”
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42 min: Semenyo shrugs off his old team-mate Kerkez with absurd ease, then switches play from right to left. Tavernier’s shot is blocked. Then Smith has a run down the right. Kerkez, in headless-chicken mode, slides in recklessly and upends his man. Into the book he goes.
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40 min: A strange echo of the Community Shield for Ekitike: threading a cool shot into the bottom right, then missing an easier chance with a close-range header.
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39 min: Ekitike celebrated his first Premier League goal with a No20 celebration, then a prayer. He’s nearly performing it again in short order, as Gakpo whips a cross in from the left. Ekitike should hit the target at the very least, but heads over from six yards.
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GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Bournemouth (Ekitike 37)
Bournemouth have been the better team so far, but it’s Liverpool who lead! Wirtz slips a pass down the inside-left channel to release Ekitike, who attempts to nutmeg Senesi. He doesn’t quite manage it, but a ricochet lands at his feet, and he’s clear! He opens his body and calmly sidefoots into the bottom right. The champions lead.
Hugo Ekitike scores the opening goal of the Premier League season! Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 15.48 EDT
35 min: Evanilson busies himself down the right and lays off for Smith, who cuts back for the in-rushing Tavernier. He aims a sidefoot towards the right-hand portion of the net, and it’s an easy claim for Alisson. Had he put his foot through that, the Liverpool keeper might have had a problem.
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33 min: Both teams continue to fly into challenges. All above board, but it’s making passing sequences a rare event.
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31 min: The game restarts, and Van Dijk cushions a weak header into the arms of Petrovic.
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30 min: According to Peter Drury on Sky, Semenyo was “subjected to a racist comment from the crowd.” It was Semenyo who brought Anthony Taylor’s attention to the incident. What is wrong with people?
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29 min: Before the corner can be taken, referee Anthony Taylor trots over and has a long discussion with his fourth official. Notes are taken. Not sure what is going on here, but both Arne Slot and Andoni Iraola are invited over for a chat.
Anthony Taylor speaks with both benches after a racist comment from from someone in crowd to Antoine Semenyo. Photograph: Liverpool FC/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 15.37 EDT
28 min: Frimpong crosses low from the right. Ekitike tries to sidefoot goalwards from ten yards, but Diakite gets in the road to divert the ball out for a corner.
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