LONDON: For seven minutes after the final whistle, Liverpool players and staff stood in front of their fans in Preston singing Diogo Jota’s name.
The pre-season friendly at Deepdale late last night was originally planned as the start of Liverpool’s preparations to defend their Premier League title, but it turned into a memorial event for Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, who died in a road accident in Spain 10 days ago.
Liverpool went through their opening pre-season match with great professionalism, beating Preston 3-1 to start the summer campaign on a positive note.
Conor Bradley opened the scoring in the 33rd minute, capitalising on a weak touch from Dominik Szoboszlai who received a sweeping cross from Federico Chiesa.
Darwin Nunez doubled Liverpool’s lead after the break and paid a touching tribute to the late Jota with his celebration.
After scoring in the 53rd minute, the Uruguayan striker ran towards the corner flag, sat down and pretended to play with a video game controller, an iconic gesture that Jota often does when celebrating a goal.
Nunez also made the ‘shark’ gesture that Jota had made when scoring against Everton at Goodison Park earlier this year.
However, Arne Slot’s squad failed to prevent a goal from being conceded when Preston defender Liam Lindsay scored with a powerful header from a corner kick in the 83rd minute.
Slot made a big change in the second half, as is customary in pre-season action, giving chances to some of the young players from the academy.
One of them, Ben Doak, played a role in Liverpool’s third goal when he provided the assist for Cody Gakpo, who scored to end any hopes of a Preston comeback.
Liverpool will continue their pre-season campaign on July 26 against AC Milan in Hong Kong.