By Samuel A. October 23, 2025
Liverpool ended a run of four straight defeats in all competitions with a dominant 5-1 victory at Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League, in a match that saw Hugo Ekitike score against his former club in an incredible comeback from a goal down to thrash Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League. After making a blistering start to the season with seven successive wins in all competitions, the Reds’ form took a concerning dip with four successive losses, including one against bitter rivals Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday.
The big news ahead of kick-off was Arne Slot dropping talisman Mo Salah to the bench for a second straight European game, and it initially looked like a decision that was going to backfire as Rasmus Kristensen finished a fine Eintracht move to give the hosts the lead.
However, Liverpool turned things around as Ekitike equalised 10 minutes before the break when he raced on to Andy Robertson’s excellent ball out of defence and produced a composed finish. Virgil van Dijk added a second barely four minutes later, heading home from a corner before Ibrahima Konate made it 3-1 a minute before half time as he also headed in a corner. The Ekitike-Isak partnership lasted just 45 minutes as the former Newcastle striker did not emerge for the second half after an underwhelming first half, with Arne Slot confirming after the game Isak had suffered a groin injury.
The damage to Frankfurt was already done by then but Liverpool were determined to get back to winning ways in style as they added two further goals in a second half they completely dominated.
Cody Gakpo got his fourth of the season when he fired in from Florian Wirtz’s square ball before Dominik Szoboszlai’s long-distance drive wrapped up the win, with Wirtz once again providing the assist.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot said after the game: “We needed a win. What we needed more was another performance where we create a lot of chances but the players get the reward with a win. That’s what happened today. I saw a lot of similarities today compared to the other games because the first chance they got was a goal, maybe it was the only chance they had today, and we went 3-1 up, and it’s maybe easier to control a game when you’re 3-1 up than if you are 1-0 or 2-1 down.
But the main difference between this game and the four before was that in most of them, the other team scored from a set piece and this time, we scored from two set-pieces. Then people focused more on the attacks we had in the second half rather than the misplaced passes, which we probably had today as well. But when you’re 3-1 up, you are judged differently.”
