Liverpool forward Hugo Ekitike was in superb form as the Reds beat his former suitors Newcastle 4-1
Hugo Ekitike scored twice against Newcastle
Hugo Ekitike scored twice against Newcastle(Image: Getty Images)
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It wasn't supposed to be this forward who would become the new darling of the Kop after a summer long, tenuous and eventually extremely bitter transfer wrangle with Saturday night's opponents.
But circumstances and his own sheer talent have combined to make Hugo Ekitike the name on Liverpool supporters' lips week after week, and none more so than here.
The Frenchman isn't just stepping up and delivering the demands that are expected of a Liverpool centre forward, he is doing so in a season when so many around him have struggled with their own games, and his two goals in two minutes shortly before half-time elevated his side at a time when they could have crumbled under Newcastle's bruising approach.
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Indeed, instead of looking at the twin towers of Dan Burn and Malick Thiaw and feeling any way inferior, Ekitike saw it as a challenge to take them on and punish a club who had hoped to place him in the same team as the defensive pairing when they chased him in the summer.
Rather than strutting his stuff at St James's Park he now looks born for the Anfield stage, and he turned things around for his team-mates in spectacular fashion.
Florian Wirtz has developed an understanding with Ekitike the like of which hasn't been seen at Anfield since the days of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, and it was no surprise to hear that the former Liverpool captain was purring at Ekitike's first half display on television shortly after his electric brace.
The German had set up the first when he brilliantly danced into space and placed the ball across the box, inviting Ekitike to arrive in emphatic fashion.
Then in the blink of an eye came the second, a strike evoking Torres' famous first at Anfield back way in 2007 when he squared up Chelsea's Tal Ben Haim and steered home.
This time it was the tumbling Thiaw who couldn't get near the forward, as Ekitike expertly evaded him before sending Anfield into rapture once more.
A glorious chance for a hat-trick was passed up early in the second half, but that couldn't sour Ekitike's day at all, and there was even time for a little reminder of the scoreline to Newcastle fans as he left the pitch when substituted in the 84th minute.
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