Match Report: Arne Slot’s New Signings Impress as Liverpool Defeat Athletic Bilbao | OneFootball

Liverpool 3-2 Athletic Bilbao: Cody Gakpo Scores a Hat-Trick(ish)

In the second game of the evening at Anfield, Arne Slot named a strong side to take on Athletic Bilbao. New signings Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong and Giorgi Mamardashvili all started the game.

The early signings were hugely promising with the new signings taking hold of the game. Ekitike helped find the breakthrough after 14 minutes with a brilliant showcase of pace to beat his man and find Mohamed Salah in the box, who prodded the ball home.

Bilbao found an equaliser just 15 minutes later as Oihan Sancet hit home from inside the area.

The score remained level until the 55th minute where Cody Gakpo squeezed the ball home.

After missing the pre-season tour in Asia, Federico Chiesa returned to action as he replaced Ekitike in the 57th minute.

Before long, Gakpo had turned villain as he, quite amusingly, saw the ball ricochet off his face and past Giorgio Mamardashvili to level the score once more.

But just six minutes later, the Dutch forward had restored Liverpool lead to cap off a rather chaoctic 15 minutes.

New signing Will Wright also made an appearance off the bench and looked really bright in spells. The 17-year-old almost found himself on the scoresheet.

Salah had the chance to put the icing on the cake when Liverpool were awarded a penalty in the closing minutes. However, the Egyptian King blazed the ball over the crossbar. You’d rather it now then ever!