Liverpool beats Athletic twice at Anfield: Salah and Gakpo shine

Liverpool faced Athletic Club in two pre-season friendlies at Anfield, with varied but promising results. The team led by Arne Slot showed glimpses of their offensive potential, although they also highlighted areas for defensive improvement.

Gakpo’s Double in the Victory

In the second match of the day, Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo led the 3-2 victory. Salah opened the scoring, while Gakpo scored two goals, although he also had an own goal. Athletic Club, for its part, managed to tie on two occasions, but could not avoid the defeat.

In the first match, an alternative Liverpool team won 4-1. 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha stood out with a goal and an assist, demonstrating his promising performance in the preseason. Darwin Núñez, Ben Doak, and Harvey Elliott also contributed with goals.

The atmosphere at Anfield was emotional, as it was the first home game after the passing of Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva. Both were honored with floral offerings and a minute of applause.

• Liverpool transfers: Salford teenager Will Wright joins club
• Premier League 2025-26 kits: Ranking every shirt released
• Jota and Silva’s boyhood club dedicate 25-26 shirts to brothers

I think in both matches we created a lot of opportunities, we scored seven goals, four in the first, three in the second, so it’s very nice to see that because we definitely didn’t score all the opportunities we had. Especially in the second match in the first half, I think we could have scored a few more goals than we did. So that pleased me more, the ability to create the opportunities and even score seven goals in two matches is also good.

Arne Slot

Coach Arne Slot highlighted the team’s ability to create opportunities and score goals, although he also pointed out the need to improve the defense, especially in set pieces. Virgil van Dijk was not present due to illness, while Conor Bradley, Joe Gomez, and Alisson Becker also did not play for different reasons. Liverpool will face Crystal Palace in the Community Shield and will begin their Premier League campaign at home against Bournemouth on August 14. Slot expressed his enthusiasm for Liverpool’s new attack, but also acknowledged the loss of important players like Jota and Luis Díaz. In addition, he highlighted the good performance of Hugo Ekitike and Rio Ngumoha in the preseason. The coach also mentioned the need to improve on set pieces, especially ahead of the match against Crystal Palace, a strong team in this regard.