Alexander Isak's Stunning Double Lifts Liverpool Against Ipswich

Alexander Isak needed only 10 minutes to rip the noise out of Portman Road.

The Liverpool forward struck twice inside a blistering opening spell of their trip to Ipswich Town on Friday, Sept. 4, scoring in the sixth and ninth minutes to hand the visitors a dream start and leave the Tractor Boys reeling.

Both goals carried the fingerprints of Cody Gakpo, the Dutchman who spent deadline week at the center of transfer chatter but ultimately stayed put on Merseyside. He responded not with words, but with craft.

For the first, Gakpo drifted infield and spotted Isak lurking on the edge of the box. The pass was simple, the finish anything but. Isak stepped into space and unleashed a driven effort from range. Ipswich goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen got something on it, but not enough. The ball skidded past him and Liverpool were in front before the home side had settled.

The second arrived even quicker than Ipswich could regroup.

This time Gakpo went for audacity. From his own half, he wrapped the outside of his boot around the ball and threaded a stunning pass into the corridor between the back line and the 18-yard box, a teasing gap that defenders hate and forwards live for. Isak burst onto it, still with work to do. He squared up his marker, skipped past with confident footwork and rolled a composed left-footed finish into the net.

Two chances. Two ruthless conclusions. Ipswich stunned.

Those early strikes pushed Isak to three goals for the season, while Gakpo’s pair of assists took him to three in the campaign, on top of his single goal. For a player who could easily have been packing bags instead of picking passes, it felt like a pointed reminder of his value.

The quickfire double also carved out a slice of history. No Liverpool player had scored twice so quickly from the opening whistle in league play since 2011, when Maxi Rodriguez hit Fulham with a seven-minute brace. For Ipswich, it went down as one of the fastest two-goal concessions in the club’s Premier League era, a brutal statistic to wear in front of their own supporters.

Portman Road had waited a long time for nights like this back in the top flight. Isak and Gakpo made sure it remembered the return for very different reasons.