Key events
24 min: Ekitike bundles into the back of Diakite, then swivels and prepares to shoot. But he’s fouled his man. So despite then being clattered from behind by Senesi, it’s not going to be a penalty. Senesi seems to be in a strange mood.
22 min: Salah goes bustling down the inside-right channel. He nearly breaks through three challenges, but that’s one too many. For a second, a facsimile tribute to this Jota goal against Chelsea was on the cards. But it wasn’t to be.
20 min: “Oh, he wears the No 20 / He will take us to victory / And when he’s running down the left wing / He’ll cut inside and score for LFC / He’s a lad from Portugal / Better than Figo don’t you know / Oh, his name is Diogo!”
19 min: Bournemouth will be happy with their start to this game. Most of the match is being played in the Liverpool half. “Have we just witnessed our first VARpology of the season already?” wonders Dan Christmas. “It’s a clear lunge at the ball, I could understand if they’d said it wasn’t DOGSO – but it was as handball as handball can be.”
17 min: That Ekitike-Senesi incident has put Arne Slot in a right old funk. He’s ranting and raving in the Goodison Park style. Keeping it just the right side of Telling It As He Sees It.
15 min: Brooks is booked for arguing over a goal kick that he thought should have been a corner. Daft.
13 min: Senesi whiffs in the centre circle. Ekitike looks to break clear. Senesi extends his arm and with the very tips of his fingers, nudges the ball away, just enough to deny Ekitike a clear run at goal from the halfway line. It was very light. But just enough. Referee and VAR both give the defender the benefit of the doubt, saying it was one movement, the ball pinging up off his thigh, the defender unaware … but Senesi made a clear second lunge at the ball with his arm. That should have been a red card for the denial of a scoring opportunity.
11 min: Liverpool counter, and Salah nearly releases Gakpo down the left with a sliderule pass. Smith, taking no chances, slides it out for a corner, and Petrovic claims the set piece. This is bright and relentless, and surely not going to end 0-0.
10 min: Semenyo feeds the overlapping Smith down the right, and a corner is won off Van Dijk. The set piece is flicked on by Evanilson, and it’s fortunate for Liverpool that Szoboszlai is at the right-hand post, and able to head clear.
9 min: Liverpool’s pre-season has been a story of exciting attack, porous defence. There are signs of all that already … and now Konate clanks a dismal backpass miles wide of his intended target, Alisson, and out for a corner. The set piece is easily snaffled by Alisson. It’s not too wild to suggest this could already be 2-2.
7 min: Truffert, the new Kerkez for Bournemouth, steams down the left, and curls low for Semenyo, who nips in ahead of the old Kerkez, Kerkez. He should score, really, or at least work Alisson, but leans back and hoicks into the Kop. It’s an open start.
5 min: Wirtz’s corner is worked long, towards Frimpong on the right flank. He lays off to Salah, who crosses for Van Dijk. He eyebrows a header over the bar from six yards. Liverpool’s captain might have done better leaving that to the nearby Ekitike.
4 min: Ekitike flicks a pass down the left for Gakpo, whose cross isn’t all that. Adams clears. Then Ekitike strokes another pass, this time down the right for Salah, who cuts inside and lashes a curler towards the top left. Petrovic sticks up a strong hand and tips over the bar.
2 min: The Liverpool faithful segue into their first chant of “Champions!” as Ekitike takes his first shot of the evening. It’s a dribbler straight at Petrovic.
Liverpool get the ball rolling. Bournemouth are kicking towards the Kop in this first half. The Jota song is rattling Anfield’s roof, all that emotion released.
A minute of silence “in memory of Diogo Jota, our Forever 20, and his beloved brother André Silva.” Perfectly observed. A mosaic of DJ20 in the Kop, another of AS30 in the Kenny Dalglish Stand, all in Portuguese colours. And then the whistle goes, and up with the song again.
With more tributes coming up at Anfield, Liverpool look pensive in the tunnel. Mohamed Salah on his haunches, staring at the wall, lost in thought. Then both teams emerge from the tunnel as all four corners of the stadium resonate to that song about their lad from Portugal. Every single person doing the man proud. Then the playing of You’ll Never Walk Alone, traditional but never more on point. Many glassy eyes in the stadium. Salah holds his hands over his nose and mouth, trying hard not to break down. Dominik Szoboslai throws an arm over his shoulder and taps it gently. It’s hard to watch. So sweet as well. He’ll never walk alone.
Sky Sports began their broadcast tonight with this tribute to Diogo Jota. It’s heartbreaking but heartwarming in equal measure. “A champion for his family, a champion for his country, and a champion for winning the Premier League,” concludes Arne Slot, simply but rather beautifully. The Liverpool manager, responding to the terrible news last month, said: “I wish I had the words but I know I do not.” Well, he found them, didn’t he?
Pre-match postbag. “They’ll sing in the stadium, in pubs, in living rooms. #His name is Diogo# Present tense. Is. In the collective memory of the football world. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like for his wife and children in the stadium. I hope they feel the love that the club and the fans had for him” – Matt Dony
“Rest in Peace to Jota, his brother, and peace to their surviving family. This may be shallow thinking but with all the shite going on worldwide, these PL MBMs bring a temporary respite for many of us” – Mary Waltz
“Ekitike is already fourth on the all-time (meaning since 1992) Palindromic Surname Assist Providers list, behind Crystal Palace’s Eze (20-something), his former club-mate Ojo (one), and someone I have forgotten. Kabak is joint fourth but Ekitike is way out front among Palindromes Who Can Be Sung Along To ABBA’s Chiquitita” – Paul Griffin
Three differing examples of exactly why Mary writes such kind words.
More from Iraola, this time on the £57m exit of centre-back Illia Zabarnyi … “It is difficult when someone like PSG, winning the Champions League, comes for one of your players … I knew it was going to happen … I am very happy for him but it will be a big miss.”
… and his replacement Bafode Diakite, a £34m capture from Lille just a couple of days ago … “He is a great defender … it is probably risky to start him away here! … but he has experience in the Champions League … he will know the atmosphere … it will be a big test for him because he doesn’t have connections, the things you need with a team-mate … but we trust the player and hope he performs well.”
… then finally a word on Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez replacement at left-back, Adrien Truffert. “The transition has been quite smooth … he has adapted really well … today it will be a difficult job against Mo Salah … I hope he does well!”
It’s Andoni Iraola’s turn to chat with Sky, and he’s first asked about the upheaval in the Bournemouth defence, with three members of last season’s back line, plus the keeper, out the door. “It is a difficult moment … a lot of uncertainty … we cannot look at the negative side, and say we do not have these players … we have new players … even more players … and we have to build something again … a new start … exciting … this game will give us some more information … pre-season is always difficult … later we will know more about our team … we face the champions at Anfield … for the players we cannot ask much more than a start here!”
These two clubs are on the verge of doing some business with each other …
… but that’s not the only news of Liverpool in the market today.
Season previews. Time for one last look before the first ball is kicked in anger.
Slot continues: “We have lost many players and brought in many … even yesterday we brought in one who is not available yet … we have lost a few very good players … the ones we brought in are special as well … in general [in pre-season] we don’t concede more chances, but the ones we do concede have led to goals.”
Arne Slot speaks to Sky Sports, and first addresses the impact on his squad of this tragic summer. “The players are far better than I expected five or six weeks ago … in that moment in time, you feel will it ever be possible to play again? … but they have conducted themselves so, so, so well … on both sides they were great, as a human being, but they also understood they have to be professional football players again … so we had to work hard, and that’s what we started doing.”
Liverpool name four Premier League debutants this evening. Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez all start, as they did at Wembley against Crystal Palace last weekend in the Community Shield.
Bournemouth aren’t far behind them in that regard. They’ve got three new players in their line-up tonight: goalkeeper Đorđe Petrović, left-back Adrien Truffert and central defender Bafodé Diakité all make their competitive debuts for the Cherries.
The teams
Liverpool: Alisson, Frimpong, Konate, van Dijk, Kerkez, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Salah, Wirtz, Gakpo, Ekitike.
Subs: Mamardashvili, Gomez, Endo, Chiesa, Jones, Elliott, Robertson, Nyoni, Ngumoha.
Bournemouth: Petrovic, Smith, Diakite, Senesi, Truffert, Adams, Scott, Brooks, Tavernier, Semenyo, Evanilson.
Subs: Dennis, Araujo, Soler, Junior Kroupi, Hill, Traore, Billing, Winterburn, Rees-Dottin.
Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire).
Diogo Jota is pictured on the cover of this evening’s match programme. Arne Slot pays tribute to Liverpool’s No20 and his brother André Silva in his notes, which confirm that Jota’s wife Rute Cardoso, his children and family will be at Anfield this evening. There will be a moment of silence before kick-off, the players will wear black armbands, and Liverpool will wear a Forever 20 emblem on their shirts and jackets.
We know that this will be a very emotional occasion, given it is the first league game we have played since we lost Diogo and André. As I have said previously, the tributes that have been paid throughout the football world, and especially within the LFC community, have been truly special, and I know that tonight we will come together to honour them once more.
I believe that Diogo’s wife, his children and his family will be in attendance and it is important that, as a club, we show that they will always have our love and support as they deal with this most tragic of situations. We are there for them always.”
Preamble
Almost exactly one year ago – 363 days, to be precise – Liverpool found themselves struggling during their season opener at Portman Road. Newly promoted Ipswich Town had been the better team in the first half, and with nearly an hour on the clock, the score remained goalless. But then Trent Alexander-Arnold curled in from the right, finding his team-mate who …
… flashed a header wide from six yards, when it was surely easier to score. Ah well.
No matter, though! That team-mate, an indefatigable bundle of joyous energy, selfless commitment, Fowleresque skill, and straight-up fun, wasn’t to be disheartened. He simply came at Ipswich again, 60 seconds later, entering the box to meet a Mohamed Salah pass by calmly and adroitly whipping a firm sidefoot into the corner. The first goal of the Arne Slot era, a crucial momentum-shifter, and the first step towards Premier League glory. Diogo Jota took Liverpool to victory. Better than Figo, don’t you know?
A year is a long time by any reasonable measure, but with another season opener upon us, all of that feels particularly distant now. Anfield, staging its first competitive fixture since the tragic passing of Diogo and his brother André Silva, will remember, grieve and celebrate those beautiful, beloved boys tonight with a special Kop mosaic in their honour. Then a game of football will take place. Kick-off will be at 8pm UK time, and Jota is forever Liverpool’s number 20.
