Liverpool’s pre-season friendly against Yokohama F Marinos will reportedly not be cancelled, despite the fact Japan has issued a tsunami warning following an earthquake in Russia. The Reds will go head-to-head with the Japanese team this morning at 11.30am (BST).
Liverpool began their pre-season campaign with a 3-1 victory over Preston in mid-July, with the occasion proving highly emotional for supporters and players following the death of Diogo Jota 10 days before. The Merseyside giants then flew to Hong Kong last week and suffered a 4-2 defeat at the hands of AC Milan on Friday. Their third pre-season match is due to be played at the Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, with Slot’s team then returning home to play back-to-back matches against Athletic Bilbao on Monday.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s far eastern coast.
A tsunami then hit Japan’s large northern island of Hokkaido, with the Japan Meteorological Agency stating a first wave of about one foot in height reached Nemuro.
The Agency then explained that a tsunami as high as 1.3 feet had been detected in 16 locations as the waves moved south towards Tokyo.
Residents have been informed that bigger waves will arrive, with nearly two million people told to evacuate their homes.
The warnings span from Hokkaido in the north to the Wakrayama prefecture in the south, an area that spans hundreds of miles. And the Japan Meteorological Agency have told people that tsunami waves could reach up to three metres in height.
Yokohama is located on the western shore of Tokyo bay, around 20 miles southwest of Tokyo.
And, according to The Athletic, the match between Liverpool and Yokohama F Marinos is not in doubt, with fans still be able to travel to the stadium on public transport.
As of 8am on Wednesday morning, Liverpool’s X (formerly Twitter) page hadn’t made reference to the tsunami, but had published a recent post to inform fans of how they can tune into the match to watch live coverage.
Liverpool enjoyed an incredible season under Slot last time out as they won the Premier League by 10 points.
They have since splashed out prodigious sums of cash to sign Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong and Huge Ekitike. The Reds have also been heavily linked with a blockbuster move for Alexander Isak, who has reportedly told Newcastle he wants to move on.
Liverpool will begin the new season by taking on Crystal Palace in the Community Shield on Sunday, August 10, before hosting Bournemouth in their opening Premier League clash five days later.