Rio Ngumoha and Federico Chiesa were also on target as Liverpool eased to a 5-0 friendly win over Stoke City at the AXA Training Centre on Sunday
14:51, 20 Jul 2025Updated 15:54, 20 Jul 2025
Ryan Gravenberch, Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez of Liverpool during a pre-season training session(Image: Nikki Dyer – LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Florian Wirtz made his first appearance for Liverpool since a club record transfer arrival as the Reds eased to victory in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Championship side Stoke City. Wirtz, a £116million capture from Bayer Leverkusen last month, had been absent from the 3-1 win at Preston North End in the opening warm-up game for Arne Slot’s side last weekend.
But the attacking midfielder featured for the first half of the game against Stoke, which was played at the AXA Training Centre at Kirkby on Sunday afternoon.
Darwin Nunez continued his good start to pre-season by scoring a hat-trick inside 20 minutes while Rio Ngumoha also netted before the break as the Reds romped to a 5-0 victory over the Potter, Federico Chiesa finishing the scoring in the second half.
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Nunez struck his opener on six minutes with an instinctive effort after Wirtz’s attempted throughball to Dominik Szobsoszlai was blocked. The striker touched home a Szoboszlai cross from the right for his second six minutes later, and then converted a Curtis Jones delivery for his hat-trick.
Ngumoha notched a few minutes later with a deflected effort while Chiesa scored with two minutes remaining after Cody Gakpo squared a Jeremie Frimpong cross to the far post.
Wirtz was part of a strong starting XI in which captain Virgil van Dijk made his first appearance of pre-season.
The Germany international operated as the number 10 with Ngumoha lining up on the left flank, Mohamed Salah on the right and Nunez, who looked particularly sharp, down the middle. Jones and teenager Trey Nyoni were at the base of the midfield.
Surprisingly, Szoboszlai was at right-back, with Joe Gomez partnering Van Dijk while Andy Robertson was at left-back and Giorgi Mamardashvili in goal.
Ibrahima Konate made his first outing of the summer in a completely-changed second-half team. New young goalkeeper signing Armin Pecsi was in goal for the final half-hour, with Kostas Tsimikas at centre-back, Conor Bradley right-back and Milos Kerkez left-back.
Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo were the two defensive midfielders with Gakpo more advanced. Chiesa, Frimpong and Ben Doak made up the forward line. Luca Stephenson replaced Doak for the last 15 minutes.
Liverpool will now jet out to the Far East for the start of their pre-season tour. They face AC Milan in Hong Kong next Saturday before moving on to Japan for a game at Yokohama F Marinos.