Ekitike stars as Liverpool earn first league victory of 2026

Hugo Ekitike scored twice, and Florian Wirtz turned in a superb performance as Liverpool came from behind to thrash Newcastle United 4-1 at Anfield.

Arne Slot’s team – who were beaten late on by AFC Bournemouth last week – claimed their first Premier League win of 2026 in confident fashion, despite being second-best for much of the first half on Saturday.

Anthony Gordon deservedly put Newcastle ahead, only for Ekitike to turn the game on its head with two goals in as many minutes.

Wirtz fabulously teed up Ekitike’s equaliser, and the Germany international then made sure of the points with a cool finish before Ibrahima Konate capitalised on Nick Pope’s blunder in the third minute of stoppage time.

Ending a run of five league games without a win sees Liverpool move into fifth, while Newcastle are 10th after back-to-back defeats.

How the match unfolded

Harvey Barnes struck the post from a cleverly worked free-kick in the 26th minute, and Newcastle were rewarded for their bright performance when Gordon brilliantly arrowed beyond Alisson 10 minutes later.

But Liverpool dragged themselves level in the 41st minute, with the in-form Wirtz wriggling his way through a crowd of defenders before laying it off for Ekitike to prod home.

Watch: Wirtz sets up Ekitike's equaliser

Liverpool flipped the script before half-time – Ekitike wonderfully found the bottom-right corner with the outside of his right foot after latching onto Milos Kerkez’s long ball.

Ekitike spurned a glorious chance to seal his hat-trick just after half-time, slicing wide after robbing Dan Burn.

Wirtz made no such mistake in the 67th minute, though, calmly placing an exquisite finish into the bottom-left corner after combining with Mohamed Salah.

The Reds got their fourth in stoppage time when Konate bundled home after Pope dropped a corner at his feet, with Liverpool warming up for next week’s home clash against Manchester City in ideal fashion.

Ekitike continues to shine as Wirtz clicks into gear

For the first few months of the season, there could hardly have been more of a difference in the starts made to their respective Liverpool careers by Ekitike and Wirtz.

Both signed after starring in the Bundesliga, and Ekitike took to the Premier League like a duck to water, scoring in his first two appearances in the competition – including netting against Newcastle in a thrilling 3-2 win at St James’ Park in August.

Wirtz, meanwhile, struggled to adapt to the pace and intensity and did not register his first goal involvement until December.

However, Wirtz has now clicked into gear, and he showed what he can do from a creative standpoint with his sensational assist for Ekitike, before demonstrating plenty of composure to grab Liverpool’s third goal. He also set up a great chance for Salah, who skewed wide.

Ekitike, meanwhile, has plundered seven league goals since the start of December. He went off to a standing ovation, as Newcastle fans were again left to lament their club reportedly missing out on the 23-year-old’s signature in the summer.

And even though he did not score, Salah’s assist for Wirtz’s strike means the Egyptian broke another Premier League record, becoming the first player to register double figures for both goals and assists against one opponent.

Konate’s goal capped off a fantastic night for Liverpool, with the centre-back – who recently lost his father – marking a fine individual performance in style.

Gordon does his bit, but can questions be asked of Newcastle’s other forwards?

Newcastle were superb in the first half, and Eddie Howe can consider his team extremely unfortunate to have gone into half-time 2-1 down.

Barnes was desperately unlucky not to open the scoring, but Gordon got his reward for energetically leading Newcastle’s line with his fine finish soon after.

Yet there are some questions to be asked of Howe.

Gordon is not a natural striker, yet Howe left the two forwards Newcastle signed to replace Alexander Isak – who watched on from the stands as his recovery from injury continues – on the bench until the 73rd minute.

Howe, seemingly, was aiming to catch Liverpool’s defence out with blistering pace, with Anthony Elanga and Barnes flanking Gordon, but the lack of a focal point was evident in the second half.

By the time Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade came on, the race was up for Newcastle. Indeed, Woltemade’s biggest impact came as he blocked a goal-bound header from Konate, who went on to score anyway a moment later.

Newcastle’s focus now switches to the second leg of their EFL Cup semi-final against Man City, before they host Brentford next weekend.

Club reports

Liverpool report | Newcastle report

What the managers said

Arne Slot: "I'm proud because I think in the first 25-30 minutes we had a difficult game and we went 1-0 down, but a lot has been said about the noise around the club, and the Liverpool fans showed what they mean by noise.

"In the 15 minutes before half-time it was a great combination between the players showing what they did and the fans were so loud.

"At half-time all of a sudden we were 2-1 up and then in the second half we had more than enough chances to go to 3-1 earlier, but in the end 4-1 is a great win for us.

"I said to the players after Bournemouth that we need to improve in both boxes and we scored 10 goals and conceded just one [in the next two games]. We defended really well today, we had to defend a lot of corners, throw-ins and free-kicks, which was similar to the away game."

Eddie Howe: "Ideally today we would have played a little differently but we were really hamstrung with injuries so we went the way that we did and I was pleased with the attitude of the players. We saw some really positive signs that can help us in the future.

"We have to keep looking for solutions. We are in a tough run with a lot of away fixtures so we are going to be really finely tuned and hope we can solve our away form and in the next games we can come up with the solutions to take us forward."

Next PL fixtures

Key facts

Liverpool's Ekitike and Wirtz have combined for six goals in all competitions this season, more than any other Premier League duo, assisting three goals each.

Only Bournemouth and West Ham United (both 18) have dropped more points in Premier League games this season than Newcastle (16), while it’s the sixth season in the competition they’ve lost four games when scoring first along with 1999/00, 2012/13, 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22.

Liverpool’s Salah is the first Premier League player to record double figures for both goals (10) and assists (10) against an opponent, doing so against Newcastle United. 

Newcastle Gordon ended a run of 32 Premier League appearances without a goal from open play since January 2025 against Wolverhampton Wanderers; while his three goals against Liverpool is his joint-most against a side in the competition.