Five-star Reds ROMP back to winning ways

WORTH THE WAIT AS THEY HOPE BIG WIN IN FRANKFURT PROVIDES LIFT-OFF

- By IAN DOYLE

HIS was definitely worth the wait for Liverpool. And now Arne Slot will hope his new-look team have finally achieved liftoff this season.

Having been delayed by four hours before jetting out to Germany for this Champions League clash, Slot’s side delivered their best performance of a fitful campaign with a thumping victory at Eintracht Frankfurt.

It ensured Liverpool avoided the ignominy of becoming the first Reds side since 1953 to lose five consecutive matches following a miserable month.

More importantly for Slot, though, was this was a victory in which several of his big-money summer signings proved influential. Hugo Ekitike, a £79million arrival, netted a sixth goal of the season against his former club, while £116m man Florian Wirtz was outstanding in an unaccustomed right-wing position in which he provided two assists.

Frankfurt, free-scoring in the Bundesliga but defensively suspect, were ultimately exactly the opponent Liverpool needed to bolster confidence after so many recent narrow setbacks.

That said, the German outfit did thump Galatasaray 5-1 in their previous Champions League match at the Deutsche Bank Park, where here the majority of the 58,700 crowd backed their team from first minute from last. It made for a lively atmosphere.

Wirtz will surely be regarded the main positive by Slot.

If there was undoubted comfort in being back playing in his homeland, the Germany international played very much as if with a point to prove after such a difficult start to his Anfield career.