Grin and TONIC

4 THINGS WE LEARNED

- By IAN DOYLE

Hugo Ekitike scores the fourth goal

outmuscled one defender to reach Virgil van Dijk's clearance by the halfway line and motored beyond another before thumping home in front of the Kop.

Cue the smiles from Slot. After a difficult few days, even his most fierce detractors couldn't begrudge him this evening.

Headache worsens

The collective groan from the majority of the Anfield crowd could probably be heard all the way back in Azerbaijan. Just when Arne Slot's selection headache couldn't get any worse, it absolutely did.

Barely minutes were on the clock when Jeremie Frimpong, chasing back on the right flank, began to hobble holding his groin before eventually crumpling to the turf.

Slot had attracted criticism for replacing what he saw as a tiring Frimpong relatively early in the second half at Bournemouth on Saturday with Liverpool still chasing the game.

The Reds boss, though, would not have wanted that caution to have been proven correct in such damaging fashion.

With Conor Bradley out for the season, Calvin Ramsay ineligible for this competition and Joe Gomez sidelined, it meant Wataru Endo was forced into an emergency defensive for the second time in four days.