Liverpool’s newest defensive recruit kept a clean sheet on his competitive debut, as a dominant second half display blew the visitors away.
RECORD DATE NOT STATED 18th March 2026; Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England; UEFA Champions League Football, Liverpool versus Galatasaray; a general view of the stadium PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxUK DavidxBlunsden
RECORD DATE NOT STATED 18th March 2026; Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England; UEFA Champions League Football, Liverpool versus Galatasaray; a general view of the stadium PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxUK DavidxBlunsden
There are quieter ways to begin life at a new club than with Virgil van Dijk watching from the sidelines, but Liverpool’s newest defensive recruit came through his first competitive outing on Saturday with a clean sheet and a seven goal victory to show for it.
The afternoon was far less comfortable than the final score suggests, because Sunderland hit the underside of the crossbar midway through the first half when Caleb Shakespeare reacted first in a goalmouth scramble, and a Liverpool side that had gone four matches without a win in all competitions, including a defeat by six goals to three at Manchester United last weekend, needed an organised back line to reach half time level.
Once the deadlock was broken, though, the floodgates opened, with captain Finn Inglethorpe, the son of academy director Alex Inglethorpe, heading in Erik Farkas’ cross five minutes after the restart, having already seen an earlier header come back off the bar, before Daniel Majekodunmi doubled the lead from close range just after the hour.
Majekodunmi then won the ball back and released Inglethorpe for his second, and the hosts scored four times in the final ten minutes, with Farkas converting from Inglethorpe’s pass, the captain completing his hat trick from the penalty spot, the Hungarian adding a superb free kick and right back Lenix Conde finishing Cam Williams’ cross to round off the rout.
At the heart of the defence throughout was Dara Jikiemi, the 16 year old centre back signed from Celtic in the summer and made his debut in the game. He partnered Joseph Dixon in Simon Wiles’ Under 18 side for the U18 Premier League North fixture at the Kirkby Academy and did his most important work in that tense first half.
Jikiemi spent more than a decade at Celtic, where he captained Scotland at Under 16 level, before turning down a new contract in Glasgow to follow the path Ben Doak took from Parkhead to Liverpool’s academy as a teenager, and although he had already played and scored in a friendly against the Fowler Academy at the start of October, this was his first competitive appearance in a Liverpool shirt after the club chose to ease him in gradually.
Inglethorpe’s treble takes him to ten goals for the season, while Jikiemi’s calm display alongside Dixon, at a time when the scoreline was still level and the visitors were pressing, offered an encouraging early glimpse of what Liverpool believe they have signed.
He is unlikely to travel with the Under 19s for Wednesday’s UEFA Youth League trip to Fenerbahçe, but with the Under 18s hosting Ipswich Town in the U18 Premier League Cup next Saturday, his next opportunity may not be far away.
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