Eintracht Frankfurt 1-5 Liverpool: Rampant Reds score five in Champions League to end losing streak | OneFootball

Arne Slot’s men embarked on a scoring spree after falling behind

Hugo Ekitike scored on his return to Eintracht Frankfurt as Liverpool ended their four-match losing streak with a confident 5-1 Champions League comeback victory in Germany.

He outshone British record signing Alexander Isak, who still looks short of sharpness, with the duo paired together for the first time as head coach Arne Slot opted for something different in an attempt to change their fortunes.

But it was centre-backs Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate who delivered the killer blows with free headers from corners just before half-time as Liverpool finally started to deliver on set-pieces.

Wirtz came into his own in the second half with assists for Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai to cap a happy return to Germany for him too.

Wirtz registered his first two Champions League assists for Liverpool

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If ever there was opposition to play, faced with avoiding your worst run in 73 years, it was Frankfurt, who are even more open than Liverpool – conceding 18 in the previous five matches and not keeping a clean sheet in the last nine, letting in three or more in five of the last seven.

Incredibly, after winning their opening Champions League match 5-1, Frankfurt have lost the last two by the same score.

That possibly influenced Slot’s decision to go with two strikers, although it was a little bit of a fudge with Wirtz initially playing on the right of a four-man midfield.

The Germany international is an intelligent footballer but he spent the early stages continually checking his position and when he did get the ball, his first attacking pass went straight to an opponent.

A tweak to 4-2-2-2, with Wirtz and Gakpo playing narrower and higher, gave them much more control than previous matches. Until it did not.

Wirtz lost possession down by Frankfurt’s left corner flag, midfielders Curtis Jones and Szoboszlai bumped into each other leaving Mario Goetze, the man whose failed move to Anfield in 2016 hailed the arrival of Salah, free in the centre.

His pass out to former Leeds right-back Rasmus Kristensen was dispatched off the inside of the far post.

Liverpool’s response came nine minutes later and – ironically for all their dominance – it came from a simple counter-attack.

Nathaniel Brown’s misplaced cross found Andy Robertson and he sent Ekitike racing out of his own half to confidently beat Michael Zetterer, the Frenchman almost apologetically raising his arms in celebration.

Ekitike after scoring Liverpool’s equaliser, against his former club

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Liverpool’s 300th goal as the away team in all European fixtures was followed by their 200th as the away team in all formats of this competition courtesy of Konate, following Van Dijk’s lead.

The fitness of Isak, who looked sluggish and had just one shot which Zetterer tipped around a post, continued to be managed and he was replaced at the interval by Federico Chiesa due to a suspected groin injury.

When Szoboszlai returned the favour, Wirtz crossed for Gakpo to side-foot home before the Hungary captain picked up a short pass from the German to drill into the net from 25 yards.