• Thursday, September 19, 2024
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Slot earns first win as Liverpool manager

Slot earns first win as Liverpool manager

Arne Slot recorded his first win as Liverpool manager during the pre-season in a 1-0 win over Real Betis in Pittsburgh.

Dominik Szoboszlai, the £60m signing from RB Leipzig last summer gave Slot his first win.

The Reds were beaten 1-0 by Preston, external in a behind-closed-doors friendly at their training ground earlier this month but the post-Jurgen Klopp era is now up and running with their first win on their US tour.

Hungarian midfielder Szoboszlai opened the scoring after 34 minutes by sweeping in Mohamed Salah’s through ball, while Betis striker Juanmi missed two chances in front of 42,679 fans.

Defender Bradley was the pick of the starters, linking well with Salah on the right flank and created the majority of the best chances.

Meanwhile, Carvalho, fresh from a loan spell at Hull City, looked determined to impress with a number of dangerous moments.

There was a total change in line up as youthful substitutes Trey Nyoni, Vítezslav Jaros, Tyler Morton, Harvey Blair, Ben Doak, Luke Chambers, Nat Phillips, Luca Stephenson, Owen Beck, Stefan Bajetic, Kaide Gordon and Lewis Koumas all came on in the second half.

Nyoni, 17, excelled as the first of the youngsters coming on for an injured Curtis Jones. He dictated the play in the middle of the pitch and also created a big chance for Blair.

The youthful squad was down to Liverpool’s policy to give their players from Euro 2024 and Copa America their full recommended three-week holiday, as dictated by players’ union FIFPro, when many rivals cut them short.

Ibrahim Konate and Diogo Jota will return early, however, having had minimal involvement for their national teams.

However, Liverpool lost midfielder Curtis Jones on the half hour mark with Slot saying it was too early to say how bad the injury was.

The Reds face Arsenal in Philadelphia on Thursday and then take on Manchester United in Columbia on Sunday, 4 August.

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