Late goals, Jota tributes and Semenyo racially abused as Liverpool wins Premier League opener
Defending champion Liverpool launched the Premier League with a dramatic 4-2 win over Bournemouth at Anfield on Friday in an emotionally charged match featuring tributes to Diogo Jota and a player reporting racial abuse.
Federico Chiesa scored in the 88th minute and Mohamed Salah added another goal in stoppage time as Liverpool recovered after throwing away a two-goal lead.
In between goals by Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo that put Liverpool 2-0 ahead, the game was briefly paused in the 28th after Bournemouth forward Antoine Semenyo reported to referee Anthony Taylor that he was targeted with racist language by a spectator.
Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola said the person who abused Semenyo was identified.
Semenyo, a 25-year-old Ghana international, needed to be consoled by teammates after the alleged incident but played on for the whole match and scored in the 64th and 76th to draw Bournemouth level. His second was a brilliant individual goal starting deep inside his own half.
“I don’t know how Ant’s played on, to be honest, and come up with those goals,” said Bournemouth captain Adam Smith, who added that Semenyo was “a little bit down.”
Liverpool manager Arne Slot said the incident “takes the shine off” his team’s victory.
It was the first competitive match at Anfield since Jota — a popular player for Liverpool for the past five years — and his brother, Andre Silva, were killed in a car crash in Spain on July 3.
Ahead of kickoff, fans held up placards to spell out “DJ20” and “AS30” in two of the stands during a period of silence in honor of the Portuguese players.
Players from the Liverpool team stood arm-in-arm around the center circle, and staff and players from both clubs wore black armbands.
After the final whistle, Salah was reduced to tears as he stood in front of the storied Kop stand and kept going a song about Jota that was being chanted by the home supporters.
Salah also repeated Jota’s two-armed celebration after his goal, while Ekitike and Gakpo also dedicated their goals to Jota.
“Normally at 2-2, everyone knows which player I look to at that moment in time. I would have loved to bring in Diogo Jota but I could not, for terrible reasons,” Slot said.
“But tonight, the fans and the players did what he did for us many times in the past.”
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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