Liverpool and AC Milan play their second fixtures of pre-season at the Kai Tak Stadium in Hong Kong this afternoon, as the Premier League champions take another look at a number of new signings as their prolific summer transfer window rolls on. Whilst in attendance, their newest signing, Hugo Ekitike – signed from Eintracht Frankfurt for an initial £69m – is not named in the match-day squad, but there will be a chance for further inspection on Florian Wirtz from the start. Elsewhere new signings Freddie Woodman, Giogri Mamardashvili, Milos Kerkez, and Jeremie Frimpong all feature from the bench, whilst youngsters Rio Ngumoha, Tyler Morton, and Luca Stephenson all start. 

Meanwhile, Joe Gomez won’t feature, instead flying home today to get treatment on an Achilles issue having trained out in Asia earlier this week.

Liverpool TV’s pre-match coverage have reported that the squad are looking forward to their first ‘proper’ fixture of pre-season, and whilst today’s opponents languished in eighth in the Serie A last season, it’s certainly an esteemed fixture. Since the infamous Champions League final in 2005, they’ve played four times, with Milan avenging that defeat in the 2007 final before three Liverpool wins; twice in 2021 and a 3-1 win in September of last year. 

Milan’s lineup is TBA, but we can expect to see some summer signings of equal stature to Liverpool’s, with none other than Luka Modric joining, alongside midfielder Samuele Ricci. They lost in real time, but won on a gratuitous penalty shootout vs Arsenal just three days ago, and have big motivation to prove themselves today after an underwhleming season last year. 

Kick off is 12.30pm, stay tuned!