Hugo Ekitike scored against his former club as Liverpool emphatically brought to an end their losing run by fighting back 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 to rivals Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday.
Initially, it looked like that poor run of form would continue as they made a stumbling start in Germany and fell behind when ex-Leeds defender Rasmus Kristensen struck.
But Liverpool turned things around as Ekitike – starting alongside British-record signing Alexander Isak for the first time – 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 four minutes later, powering home a header 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.
The damage 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.