Thursday’s briefing: Liverpool and Chelsea claim five-star Champions League wins

Liverpool and Chelsea were comprehensive winners as the third round of Champions League fixtures drew to a close on Wednesday night.

Both sides roared to 5-1 victories, the Merseysiders at Eintracht Frankfurt and the Londoners at home to Ajax on a night when Tottenham scrapped their way to a point in France.

They did so as Sean Dyche prepared for his first game as Nottingham Forest’s latest head coach.

Hugo Ekitike out-shone record £125million signing Alexander Isak once again as Liverpool bounced back from an early setback to win 5-1 at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Reds boss Arne Slot chose to start both summer signings at Deutsche Bank Park and saw £69m man Ekitike score against his former club to cancel out Rasmus Kristensen’s opener before Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai completed the job.

Isak, however, departed at half-time with a groin problem, having drawn yet another blank and has now scored just once in eight appearances for the club.

Slot said: “Many people wanted me to play him more and we had to find the balance and unfortunately today that balance didn’t work out for us perfectly. But let’s hope for the best.

“Today with Alex and Hugo, I brought two players on the pitch who are usually able to score goals. Alex was a few times close but had to go off at half-time and that’s the difficult balance we are having with him.”

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca saw his teenagers rise to the challenge in a 5-1 victory over 10-man Ajax at Stamford Bridge.

Nineteen-year-olds Marc Guiu and Tyrique George and Brazilian starlet Estevao Willian, 18, were all on the scoresheet as the Blues ran riot after the visitors lost captain Kenneth Taylor to a 17th-minute red card.

Asked about Estevao, Maresca