Match report as Liverpool defeated Crystal Palace 2-0 in Singapore to earn their first preseason victory. Jurgen Klopp’s team bounced back from a 4-0 loss to Manchester United. Jordan Henderson and Mohamed Salah scored the goals.
As they started preparing for the new season on Tuesday, Jurgen Klopp’s team was soundly defeated by Manchester United in their opening match. However, they responded well to Bangkok’s 4-0 loss, as Jordan Henderson’s opening goal gave them the lead at the half.
After Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain suffered a hamstring injury and had to exit the game soon before halftime. Liverpool made 11 substitutions, including the introductions of Mohamed Salah and newly acquired Darwin Nunez.
Salah quickly got involved, and his deflected shot beat Vicente Guaita to complete what ultimately turned out to be a straightforward victory over Premier League opponents.
Liverpool flew past Crystal Palace
Liverpool made a strong start and had excellent ball management in the early going.
Odsonne Edouard rose highest at a corner, but Adrian easily grabbed his header out of the air. However, it was Palace who made the first attempt at goal.
After that, Curtis Jones pushed Guaita into a deft block before Liverpool seized the lead.
The Reds’ first preseason goal came from Henderson. Hendo was found inside the penalty area by Harvey Elliott’s cut-back, and he stroked the ball into the far corner.
As Liverpool attempted to increase their lead, Roberto Firmino headed wide, and Elliott missed a great opportunity with Guaita as his only competition. However, just before halftime, the Reds suffered a setback as Oxlade-Chamberlain went down with what appeared to be a hamstring injury.
At halftime, Liverpool made 11 adjustments, including the addition of Salah, and the Egyptian entered the fray right away.
Salah cut in from the right wing and fired a left-footed shot that was deflected by Joachim Andersen, surprising Guaita. He managed to get a hand on the ball but was helpless to stop it.
A few minutes later, Nunez nearly gave Liverpool the third goal. But Guaita blocked the striker’s attempt after he was set up by Salah’s cut-back. This led to prolonging the striker’s wait for his first goal for his new team.
The second half’s rhythm was once again disturbed by substitutions, although Liverpool appeared to be the team most likely to score more goals.
Guaita was by far the busier of the two goalies. First, he stopped Virgil van Dijk’s powerful header to keep the score close by stopping Fabio Carvalho.
Boss on the win
Boss said:
“The way we played football. If you didn’t see it and just read the result, we played a good game against United. But we lost 4-0 because we made mistakes in completely the wrong moments. Football mistakes likely lead to goals or at least to chances. But it depends where you make the mistakes, and you can still sort it with defending.
The mistakes we made against United were not to sort anymore because we were open in these moments. The boys were much more compact today. We still played excellent football – which we did against United as well.
We scored twice, which we didn’t do. It was a clear step in the right direction, and that makes me happy. It’s our second game, and we have to work a lot in the next four weeks, I would say especially, to prepare for the rest of the season.
There are already Premier League games. But anyway, we have to use the time because from mid-September on we will not have time to train anymore because we just play then every three days.”
Liverpool will now play the Bundesliga team RB Leipzig at the Red Bull Arena on Thursday at 6:15 p.m. This will be followed by a trip to Red Bull Salzburg on Wednesday, July 27, for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
