Following an initial attack up the Côte de la Redoute, the 23-year-old rode off the wheel of British rival Tom Pidcock with 30 kilometres to go and powered his way to the Quai des Ardennes finish.

The Soudal Quick-Step rider clocked in after 6 hours 15min 49sec, with Ineos Grenadiers' Pidcock following him across the line 1:06 later slightly in front of Colombian Santiago Buitrago Sanchez of Bahrain Victorious.

It's the fourth time in the one-day race's history that a world champion has sealed consecutive wins after Swiss Ferdinand Kübler, Belgian Eddy Merckx, and Italy's Moreno Argentin in 1952, 1972, and 1987, respectively.

"To make it two out of two in Liege is an amazing feeling - especially to do it in this beautiful jersey, which gives me a lot of pride," said Evenepoel.

"It's magic.

"It was a super tough race in hard conditions because of the rain and the roads were quite slippery near the end.

"But the work of my team was fantastic.

"They pulled off a great show right from the start.

"We stuck to our plan despite the attack from Jumbo-Visma.

"I knew the climb after La Redoute would be key and that's where I wanted to make the difference."

The race was marred by Slovenian Tadej Pogačar who crashed out at the 84.5km mark, denying the battle between Evenepoel that had been predicted from the favourites.

The Olympic bronze medallist suffered a wrist injury with fractures to his left scaphoid and lunate bones as he was forced out of the race alongside Denmark's Mikkel Honoré.

"I heard a nasty noise - a horrible noise - and saw that someone had crashed pretty badly," said Evenpoel.

"I want to show all my support to Tadej and I hope he gets well soon.

"But that's racing - and I've had moments like this in my career."

Pogačar will require surgery according to the UAE Team Emirate medical director and now faces a race against time to be fit for the Tour de France which begins on July 1.

The Tour de Romandie in Switzerland from April 25 to 30 is next on the World Tour schedule.