Isak's Double Secures First Liverpool Win as Ipswich Struggles Continue
Andoni Iraola did not have to wait long this time. At Bournemouth, his first win took 10 matches. At Liverpool, it arrived on a brisk afternoon at Portman Road, wrapped up inside nine ruthless minutes by a striker who looks determined to leave last season behind.
Alexander Isak scored twice before Ipswich had properly drawn breath, both goals owing as much to his cold-blooded finishing as to the fragility of Kjell Scherpen in the home goal. The rest of the game became an exercise in control. Liverpool’s new era finally has a result to point at.
Isak pounces, Scherpen crumbles
Portman Road crackled early, the newly promoted hosts eager to test themselves. Liverpool silenced them almost instantly.
On six minutes, Cody Gakpo slipped a perfectly weighted pass into Isak’s stride. The Swede drove through his shot, but it was straight enough that Scherpen should have dealt with it. Instead, the ball burst through his palms and into the net. A soft concession. A brutal punishment.
Ipswich were still reeling when the second landed three minutes later. A hopeful long ball turned into a crisis as Scherpen wandered too far from his line, misjudged the situation and left his defence exposed. Isak darted in down the left and, with the angle narrowing, slid a low finish past the stranded goalkeeper. Two shots, two goals, two glaring question marks over the man in gloves.
It was a familiar horror for Ipswich fans. Last time they climbed into the top flight, Arijanet Muric’s season of errors haunted them. Scherpen, signed from Union Saint-Gilloise to bring calm and authority, instead looked rattled and raw. Against a side as clinical as Liverpool, that fragility felt fatal.
Liverpool start fast, then shut it down
The early blitz had Iraola written all over it. Aggressive press, quick vertical passes, forwards attacking space. Gakpo, electric again, linked everything together. Both goals came from his boots, his influence under the new head coach growing with every minute.
Liverpool thought Isak had his hat-trick before the break. Florian Wirtz bent in a delicious cross, Isak timed his run almost perfectly and finished, only for the flag to go up. He had gone a fraction too early. Portman Road exhaled.
Ipswich refused to fold. Leif Davis ghosted in at the back post on the half hour but headed wide, a reminder that Liverpool’s back line can still be unsettled by a well-placed cross. The home side worked, pressed, and played with courage after their nightmare opening. The crowd recognised it and stayed with them.
After the interval, the pattern changed. Liverpool tightened the screws without chasing a third. Iraola’s side compressed the pitch, pressed with more precision and protected their penalty area with a calm that had been missing in their opening two draws.
“It was another kind of second half,” Iraola admitted. Not as thrilling, but far more controlled. Ipswich were kept at arm’s length, never allowed a truly clear sight of goal.
Debut for Barcola, frustration for Ipswich
On 66 minutes, the latest expensive piece of Liverpool’s rebuild entered the stage. Bradley Barcola, a £123m signing from PSG, came off the bench for his Premier League debut. The game had already been decided, but his arrival underlined the depth of firepower Iraola now has to shape.
Liverpool briefly thought they had a penalty when VAR spotted a foul by Davis on Dominik Szoboszlai. Referee Darren England went to the monitor, only to be told Szoboszlai had been offside in the build-up. No spot-kick, and another roar from the home support.
Their anger had already been stoked by a different decision. Jérémy Jacquet, booked earlier for a foul on Emersonn, lunged in from behind on the same player early in the second half. Ipswich wanted a second yellow. They did not even get a free-kick. The challenge went unpunished, the noise inside Portman Road turning sharp and hostile.
Gary O’Neil’s frustrations did not stop there. As Liverpool closed the game down, the Ipswich boss bristled at how easily they were allowed to manage the clock.
“My goalkeeper is being hurried up at Old Trafford when we weren’t even set,” he said. “They were able to kill the game a lot easier here. That upset me a bit. They could have been hurried up.”
He still backed the officials on the big call, accepting VAR had reached the right conclusion on the Szoboszlai incident. But the sense of double standards over timekeeping clearly lingered.
Isak draws a line under last season
For Isak, this felt like a statement. Last season was fractured and frustrating, interrupted by a long injury and a World Cup that loomed large in his mind. He spoke afterwards about wanting a “normal pre-season”, about needing to reset.
Here, he looked exactly that: sharp, aggressive, hungry. Two early goals, another ruled out, constant menace on the shoulder of the last defender. Iraola praised him as “a massive player” and made it clear his demands go beyond goals – pressing, link play, the dirty work that keeps a high-intensity system functioning.
“Today we were much, much better in our press,” the head coach said. Recover high, find Isak in space, let his quality do the rest. The plan was simple. Ipswich never really solved it.
Ipswich’s No 1 shirt under the microscope
For Ipswich, the wider worry sits in goal. At this level, mistakes from your goalkeeper don’t just cost you moments; they can cost you seasons. O’Neil’s team competed well for long stretches, stuck to their plan and made Liverpool work. Yet all of that graft was undermined inside nine minutes by two moments Scherpen will see again and again in his mind.
Muric’s struggles last time they were here left scars. Scherpen’s first major outing has reopened them. Ipswich cannot afford to battle opponents and their own goalkeeper at the same time.
The home fans still applauded their side off. They saw a team that, once the chaos settled, stood up to Liverpool and traded with them. But as they filed out of Portman Road, one question hung in the air.
Is the Ipswich No 1 shirt cursed, or is this just another painful lesson in how ruthless the Premier League can be?
