Ipswich Town 0-2 Liverpool: Slot starts with a win

Premier League
Saturday 17 August 2024 - 12:30 pm
Portman Road
Ipswich0
2Liverpool
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Burns26'
45'↔️ Quansah off, Konaté on
60'Jota ⚽️
66'Salah ⚽️
77'↔️ Robertson off, Tsimikas on
77'↔️ Jota off, Gakpo on
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Liverpool got their season off to the perfect start with victory at newly promoted Ipswich Town.

The reds have enjoyed a solid pre-season, results-wise, but they began the Premier League campaign in somewhat rusty mood - amongst a cacaphony of noise generated by the home support.

The Tractor Boys were enjoying their first return back to the top flight for 22 years and in the first half their players seemed to determined to make it an afternoon to remember.

The reds were second best in many departments in a below par first half.

But the half time team-talk, couple with the replacement of Quansah for Konate, saw a brighter Liverpool in the final 45 minutes.

It was Diogo Jota who scored the first goal of the reds campaign, capitalising on a pass from Mo Salah to give the reds the lead.

And just five minutes later Mo Salah made it 2-0.

He has scored in each opening game of the season for the last 9 years.  A truly remarkable record but one from a truly remarkable player.

The reds have been blessed with his talents and in the final year of his LFC contract he appears to be in the mood to make it a memorable one.

It was ultimately comfortable for the reds - they displayed some good football in the second half and Slot had the luxury of removing some of his stars in what was a potential banana-skin opener.

A week of recuperation ahead before the Anfield visit from Brentford in next Sunday's clash.

The Dutch boss was honest in his post-match thoughts:

"I inherited a very good team and very talented players but these players have to understand it is not enough what they brought in the first half."

"We lost far too many duels in the first half. We didn't cope with that well enough.

"I didn't see them fighting for it in the first half, we lost almost every long ball.

"In the second half they were ready and then we opened up and you could see we can play quite good football."

Slot becomes the first manager since Graeme Souness in 1991 to win his opening game.  Time will tell what kind of omen that turns out to be.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: Ipswich 0-2 Liverpool

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