Ipswich 0-2 Liverpool: Isak delivers first league win for Iraola’s Liverpool

Photo credit: Liverpool FC

An early brace by Alexander Isak was enough to secure a first win and clean sheet for Liverpool this season under Andoni Iraola.

The visitors led 2-0 inside the opening 10 minutes and were able to defend an identical scoreline to the one they produced at Portman Road in August 2024. 

The Reds began with a dominant presence from the offset and had little issue to fashion attacking chances at the Ipswich defence in the early stages.

It was the hosts who were awarded the first free kick of the game as their impactful summer signing Julio Enciso was brought down by the shirt tug of Florian Wirtz.

The effort of Abdul Fatawu from distance forced the punched save of Alisson to deny, before the Reds found themselves on the counterattack.

Cody Gakpo was able to source the run of Isak down the right flank, with his precise through ball fired beyond the touch of Kjell Scherpen to find the opener.

With less than three minutes passed, Isak doubled the advantage and continued to build on his personal scoring record when playing against the Tractor Boys.

A second assist from Gakpo and a second attack for Isak was the formula. His through ball down the left was picked up by Isak who turned defender Jacob Greaves, before slotting into the net to find a second.

The brace proved to be a first for the Swede since signing for a joint British record fee of £125 million last summer, while brought his total goals scored against Ipswich up to a total of six.

The hosts looked to respond with a fair share of chances. Greaves retrieved the deflection of Enciso’s shot and had his cross into the box waived for offside, meanwhile another effort from Enciso was comfortably dealt with by Alisson.

Dominik Szoboszlai looked to add a third on his 150th Reds appearance with edge of box effort whistled wide by the stretched save of Scherpen.

Enciso nearly reduced the deficit on the half hour mark as he attempted to get beyond Alexis MacAllister with his cross met by the footed clearance of right back Ronald Araújo.

A hat-trick for Isak was short-lived when he converted the precise delivery of Wirtz and tucked a shot past Scherpen, before it was disallowed for offside.

Ipswich did look more threatening in the final 45 with the curled effort of Fatawu knocked wide against goal and the central strike of Enciso denied by Alisson.

Photo credit: Liverpool FC. Barcola on his debut.

In the 63rd minute new signing Bradley Barcola made his Liverpool debut in place of Victor Munoz, while striker Zian Flemming followed suit for Ipswich moments later.

A penalty shout for the Reds looked likely as Szoboszlai was caught by Leif Davis, but the intervention of VAR found his run to be offside in the build up.

Ipswich enjoyed a spell of attacking possession which included Davis attempting to source Flemming, but Araujo was on hand to block the cross and defend a clean sheet.

The search for a Premier League win comes to an end and puts Liverpool up to 5th in the table ahead of the weekend fixtures for matchweek 3. This gives them renewed confidence as they look to extend their victory into the Champions League against Atlético Madrid on Wednesday.

For Ipswich, the result provides a back to back league defeat but plenty of points to develop ahead of their fixture against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park next weekend.