Bournemouth captain Adam Smith speaking to Sky Sports about Antoine Semenyo reporting being racially abused from someone in the crowd: "Totally unacceptable. Kind of in shock it happened in this day and age. I don’t know how Ant has carried on playing and come up with his goals.
"He’s a little bit down. Something needs to be done. Taking a knee has taken no effect. We’ve supported him and hopefully he’ll be OK.
"I wanted him to react [after scoring], that’s what I’d have done. I’d have gone straight over there. It shows what kind of man he is to report it to the ref and carry on. Fair play to Ant.
"It’s more anger. Shocked. I said to the ref I wanted him removed immediately but the police went and sorted it. The Liverpool players were very supportive to Ant and the rest of the team. Just so angry.
“We’ve had discussions with the Premier League about it so they have been taking it seriously. I don’t know what else we can do. We’ve been doing it for a long time now and no-one is getting it. I just feel sorry for Ant and he’s had to take that. The whole country is watching and it’s shocking.”
'It shouldn’t be like this’published at 22:29 British Summer Time
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola, speaking to Sky Sports about Antoine Semenyo reporting being racially abused by someone in the crowd: "The referee explained to both managers straight away the situation. It is a big shame we have to start talking about these things.
"The Liverpool manager and the players they feel it the same. Everyone understands that these things have to be out of everywhere but especially football.
“Now we have to go again to talk to the police and the officials. I think for sure he [Semenyo ] will have it in his head [now] and it shouldn’t be like this.”
Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitike speaking to Sky Sports: "I think it was a good performance. I could do better. But the most important thing tonight is the win and the mentality we showed. We wanted to win for the people who came tonight and for Diogo and that’s what we did, so I’m happy for everybody.
“I have so many things to do better. I helped the team as much as I could, I can do a lot of things. I think I will get better and do even more for this team.”
On his role model growing up: “Growing up - there were two players, Neymar and Karim Benzema. I love Benzema, what he did for football is my role model.”
On what he has been asked to do by Arne Slot: “I changed my way of playing here, it’s different football with more intensity. The defenders are stronger and there are tight spaces here. I had so much more space in Germany. That’s why I try to come, link and go and run behind. We have to find the way to succeed with the details. It’s not good anymore. We just have to get better.”
No question our game management was bad. On their second all it took was one short pass after winning the ball back to create a 3 on 3 80 yards from our goal. That is diabolical at 2-1 up.
But the reality is with Bradley out and Gomez limited, once Frimpong was unable to go the whole game we were forced into a make shift solution. Fingers crossed Gomez feels ok in the morning because he really does give a LOT more options when fit.
Not sure though what Smith meant by ‘in this day and age’. It’s hardly a surprise that there are racists in England in 2025. Hopefully this one gets dealt with.
Slot was so effusive in his praise for them, and not just in a way to mask our short comings. It’s obvious how much he respects the way they play and has commented before they are one of the more difficult sides in the league to play against.
Also big shout out to Iriola. On our coverage it was put to him that they were very unlucky to lose today and his response was “eeeehhhhhhh, no not really” and then went on to say how good we are
yep… it’s these statements and “I cannot believe it happened here”-type statements that do my head in. The world is meaner and nastier and has easy access to express that nastiness too
