Benteke home debut goal rocks Anfield

Emdad Rahman reports from Anfield

Liverpool 1-0 Bournemouth

Liverpool Football Club made it six out of six as a debut goal from new summer signing Christian Benteke secured three points for the Red men at Anfield. John W Henry and Tom Werner were present to run the rule over their £80 million summer spree – and the £32.5 million man paid back a small slice by scoring the only goal of the game.

After losing their premiership opener to Aston Villa, Bournemouth were looking to secure their first ever top flight points, but Eddie Howe’s men will now have to wait a little longer, after leaving Anfield with empty hands.

The Cherries were on the brink of going bust seven years ago, and a year after that they almost dropped out of the football league entirely. Brendan Rogers stuck with the same starting eleven from the season’s opener at the Britannia Stadium, and Howe’s men provided the tense early moments as Tommy Elphick scored, but his challenge on Dejan Lovren to win the header was whistled for a foul by referee Craig Pawson.

Benteke looked sharp early on and went close with a 24th minute long range effort. Two minutes later, the Belgian had broken the deadlock. Jordan Henderson swung a cross in. Philippe Coutinho, in an offside position, failed to make contact. Under new rules the Brazilian should have been ruled offside, but the flag remained down. Benteke was inside and rifled past Artur Boruc. Jordan Henderson almost doubled the home advantage after James Milner fed the Reds captain at the edge of the box.

Ritchie looked threatening for the Cherries as he struck a a post. Eunan O’Kane also hit the side netting to raise the home gm fans tension levels. Martin Skrtel was fortunate not to concede a penalty for pulling down Steve Cook and Richie turned provider as Elphick headed just over. Benteke followed up by hitting the post at the other end from a Nathaniel Clyne cross.

In his post match press conference Brendan Rogers said: “I thought he (Benteke) was a real handful tonight – you saw all the facets of his game. His hold-up play is outstanding, he’s got a wonderful touch for a big guy and you saw that this evening. He can help the ball on to areas, he can take the ball in, control and switch the game, his touch is good and you see him linking and combining.

“There was one moment when the ball came into the box – which is one of the reasons we looked to bring him in – and because of his strength and power, he tried to make contact with it. It dropped and we had a chance with Coutinho to then shoot. In my time here, that’s never really happened and the ball’s come in and maybe been cleared out, but because of his physicality and contact, he keeps the ball alive in a dangerous area of the field.

“That will really help and once the players get used to seeing and working with that, it’ll offer us more opportunities to score goals. It gives us a different dimension to our game, whilst looking to retain that philosophy to move the ball and get fluency. That will come and grow over the coming months.”

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe said: “It’s hugely frustrating tonight. On one hand I am very proud of the players’ performances and how they were brave enough to go toe-to-toe with Liverpool. But obviously the huge negative is the result, so it’s tough to take. I thought we started the game brilliantly. We really did set the tone for an excellent first 25 minutes. But again we feel aggrieved that we haven’t come away with at least a point.”

Despite suffering defeat, Howe was quick to look at the bigger picture and pick out the positives from the experience. “The players will grow from tonight,” he continued. “The atmosphere and the experience will make them better players. Hopefully it’ll also reinforce that we can go anywhere in the country and compete. It’ll give the players confidence that they can succeed playing our style of football at this level. We can’t live in fear of the reputations and history of clubs, we just have to play the game. And I am happy with the game that the players played this evening.”

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