Liverpool ended 2025 in much the same way as they’ve played most of the second part of the year on Saturday: unconvincingly.
The Reds should have made light work of bottom-of-the-table Wolves, but struggled through to an ugly three points.
Despite some more disappointing individual displays, though, it was not all bad from Liverpool.
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Florian Wirtz put in arguably his best performance since arriving over the summer, finally scoring his first Premier League goal.
It was a clinical finish from Wirtz, but it was only made possible because of a brilliant assist from Hugo Ekitike. Before sliding his teammate through, Ekitike pulled off an ‘outrageous’ piece of skill which left Clinton Morrison in awe.
Hugo Ekitike delivers stunning assist for Liverpool
Liverpool were frustrated for a long period of the first-half by Wolves, but once the first goal arrived, the second came almost immediately.
It was Ekitike who made it, winning the ball back before embarking on a lovely run through the Wolves defence.
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Wirtz was begging to be put through, and Ekitike duly provided an inch-perfect through ball for the German to slide home.
Watching on for Sky Sports, former Crystal Palace striker Morrison said full credit for the goal should go Ekitike’s way.
“Wirtz scores!” exclaimed the pundit. “But let me tell you, the skill before that. They have a player by the way in Ekitike. He is outrageous.”
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“He flicks it around the corner, flicks it the other side, cuts inside, I was thinking go and have a shot, no, what he does, he slides in Wirtz and it’s a brilliant finish, but it’s all about Ekitike.”
How did Ekitike play overall?
After Alexander Isak picked up a serious injury last week, Ekitike holds the weight of Liverpool’s attack on his shoulders.
Thankfully, he has shown little sign of being burdened by pressure since his arrival in July, and this tremendous assist was more evidence of his quality.
Despite the one moment of brilliance, though, Ekitike was not especially effective against Wolves.
He huffed and puffed and worked hard in his role as a central striker, but he couldn’t engineer anything in front of goal.
Hearts would have been in mouths seeing Ekitike go down in pain on a couple of occasions during the match, but he looked fine to complete 85 minutes, eventually making way for the returning Cody Gakpo.
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