Anfield was silenced as Anthony Gordon looked to the Kop and defiantly pointed to his ear.
The Newcastle United forward had just fired his side in front against Liverpool with a well-taken 36th-minute finish.
There was plenty of time left.
But were Liverpool about to finally lose a top-flight fixture against the visitors on their own turf for the first time since 1994?
Was the champions’ winless run in the Premier League about to extend to six games?
Not if Hugo Ekitike had anything to do with it.
The France forward dragged his side level with a poacher’s finish – then fired them in front with a quick-fire second before half-time, much to the delight of manager Arne Slot.
“The fans love him,” Slot said after his side’s 4-1 win. “From the start, everyone could see how special he is, how fast he is.”
These were the sort of finishes Newcastle‘s scouting team had seen plenty of, having tried to sign Ekitike, 23, on three separate occasions – including last summer.
Even head coach Eddie Howe could not help but hold his hands up.
“Sometimes you have to acknowledge the player against you while also acknowledging we could have defended better,” he said.
“Ekitike is an outstanding player and you saw that today. He’s got a little bit of everything and that’s his biggest strength. He’s tall, quick and he can finish.”
‘It hurts me from a Newcastle point of view’
There is no doubt that Ekitike can finish.
He has already scored 15 goals for Liverpool and such an immediate return will not come as a shock to Newcastle, who always thought the striker would thrive in the Premier League.
Ekitike was just 19 and a relative unknown in this country when Newcastle first tried to sign him from Reims in 2022.
The striker had “a lot of respect” for the Magpies, but did not feel the timing was right to leave mid-season.
However, when Newcastle came calling again, a few months later, he opted to join Paris St-Germain before later moving on to Eintracht Frankfurt.
Newcastle hoped it would be a case of third time lucky last summer, but it was Liverpool who won the race – before also signing Alexander Isak from the Magpies – much to the anguish of club legend Shay Given.
“It hurts me from a Newcastle point of view,” the former goalkeeper told Match of the Day. “[Ekitike] could be wearing a black-and-white shirt.
“He is brilliant at stretching defences. He has picked Liverpool and of all the signings they did make in the summer, he has been the standout.”
This was a night when Ekitike became the youngest player to reach double figures for Liverpool in a league season since Michael Owen in 2000-01.
But it was a performance which earned him comparisons with another lethal striker from the club’s recent past – Fernando Torres.
Ekitike’s second goal was a case in point. It was almost a carbon copy of Torres’ first goal for Liverpool, against Chelsea in 2007.
The Frenchman latched on to Milos Kerkez’s ball down the left channel, drove past Malick Thiaw and finished clinically.
And the similarity certainly did not go unnoticed by the watching Steven Gerrard, who set up Torres against the Blues.
“It is all about Hugo Ekitike running the channel,” he told TNT Sports. “It is Torres-like.
“He gets it out of his feet and that toe-poke… He reminds me of Torres every time I watch him.”
Gerrard forged a deadly partnership with Torres between 2007 and 2011 – and Florian Wirtz and Ekitike are starting to strike up a similar understanding.
The pair have become friends off the field and it is showing on it, with Wirtz and Ekitike having combined for six goals in all competitions – more than any other Premier League duo.
“Hugo was scoring a lot of goals from the start of the season and Florian was involved a lot in creating chances for his team-mates and was unlucky that balls did not go in,” Slot added.
“It was not always possible to play them together every three days. That is what I mean when I speak about off the ball and match fitness – to be able to play every three days.
“That took a while for them to play at the best of their level at the highest intensity every three days. They are getting closer and closer, and it is no surprise the numbers are going up.”
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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
