{"id":23900,"date":"2025-07-26T15:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T15:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/23900\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T15:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T15:49:07","slug":"liverpool-2-4-milan-26-jul-2025-game-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/23900\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool 2-4 Milan (26 Jul, 2025) Game Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool<\/a>\u00a0were beaten by AC Milan<\/a> in their second preseason game of the summer as their new \u00a3100 million ($134.3m) man Florian Wirtz<\/a> started up front while forwards Luis D\u00edaz<\/a> and Darwin N\u00fa\u00f1ez<\/a> were left out of the squad altogether with their futures at the club increasingly uncertain.<\/p>\n

Arne Slot’s side lost 4-2 in a game where they were cut open defensively on multiple occasions while new signings Jeremie Frimpong<\/a>, Milos Kerkez<\/a> and\u00a0Giorgi Mamardashvili<\/a> all got significant minutes in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

Milan took an early lead in the heat at\u00a0Kai Tak Sports Park\u00a0as Portugese international Rafael\u00a0Le\u00e3o<\/a> broke free on a sharp break down the left inside 10 minutes where he took the ball away from Liverpool captain Virgil\u00a0van Dijk before smashing home from a tight angle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Liverpool found an equaliser just 15 minutes later courtesy of a Dominik\u00a0Szoboszlai stunner. Rio\u00a0Ngumoha, 16, found himself one on one with Fikayo Tomori<\/a> and after some sharp footwork, he fed Szoboslai who curled into the far corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Florian Wirtz made his Liverpool debut after his \u00a3100 million move from Bayer Leverkusen.<\/p>\n

Liverpool FC\/Liverpool FC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The sides went into half-time level as Slot rang the changes — only Ryan Gravenberch<\/a> remained on the pitch for the second half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With new signings Frimpong, Kerkez introduced alongside\u00a0Cody Gakpo<\/a>\u00a0and Ben Doak<\/a>\u00a0now leading the line in the second-half, Milan once again caught Liverpool on the break. With bodies high up the pitch, Le\u00e3o found space before setting up former Chelsea<\/a> midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek<\/a> who smartly slotted home past another second-half substitute, Mamardashvili.<\/p>\n

Liverpool’s commitment to having bodies high up the pitch was exploited for a third time by Milan just before the hour mark as they took a two-goal lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alexis Saelemaekers<\/a> found heaps of room down Liverpool’s left before firing a ball into the middle for\u00a0Noah Okafor<\/a> to emphatically finish, leaving Mamardashvili merely a spectator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gakpo netted a consolation at the death for Liverpool as he got on the end of a Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 cross. Milan, however, reinstated their two-goal cushion in a chaotic finish to the game as\u00a0Mamardashvili pushed forward to the halfway line before an error allowed\u00a0Okafor to get his second of the night, slotting home into an empty net.<\/p>\n

Those in attendance paid tribute to late Liverpool forward Diogo Jota with a pre-planned round of applause in the 20th minute of the match. The shirts of the Liverpool players read “Diogo J. 20” while Kenny Dalglish laid a wreath in front of the Liverpool supporters before kick off in tribute to the forward who died in a car crash on July 3.<\/p>\n

A bright 45-minutes for Wirtz, a more advanced position on the right for Frimpong and\u00a0Ngumoha on the wing were notable positives for Liverpool on an evening where they struggled defensively in an entertaining, goal-filled friendly.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool\u00a0were beaten by AC Milan in their second preseason game of the summer as their new \u00a3100 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-23900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}