Liverpool 1-0 Real Betis: Szoboszlai fires in Arne Slot’s first pre-season win – Liverpool FC

Liverpool kicked off the Arne Slot era with a win in their first official pre-season friendly, Dominik Szoboszlai’s goal enough to beat Real Betis 1-0.

Liverpool 1-0 Real Betis

Pre-Season Friendly, Acrisure Stadium (Pittsburgh, PA)
July 27, 2024

Goals

Szoboszlai 34′ (assist – Salah)

The Reds didn’t have a number of key names for the first game of their preseason tour, but Slot played arguably his strongest team possible in Pittsburgh.

Caoimhin Kelleher was handed a start after missing the closed-door defeat to Merseyside side Preston, with Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah, Sepp van den Berg and Kostas Tsimikas forming his back four.

Wataru Endo and Curtis Jones were the midfield pairing, with Mohamed Salah and Fabio Carvalho out wide, and Szoboszlai and Harvey Elliott more forward in attack, missing a striker.

After almost three weeks of training at the Slot, Liverpool showed promising signs in their patterns of play and dominated their Spanish opposition.

Endo and Salah both saw shots go wide of the goal, while at the other end Marcos Fernandez fired an effort into the side netting after Endo was caught on the edge of the box.

Liverpool found their opening not long after the half-hour mark, with Szoboszlai picking up the ball on the turn and, after combining with Salah, firing past Adrian and into the bottom corner.

Slot had already been forced to make the first change by then, with Jones withdrawn due to discomfort and the impressive Trey Nyoni taking his place.

Further changes came at half-time with Vitezslav Jaros replacing Kelleher and Tyler Morton coming on for Endo, and around the hour mark with a host of youngsters brought on to freshen things up.

Former Liverpool target Nabil Fekir tried to surprise Jaros with a free-kick at his near post but failed to hit the target as Real Betis struggled for chances.

The Reds really should have had an opportunity to make it 2-0 when Ben Doak drifted inside and Harvey Blair was sent through by Nyoni.

But while Blair appeared to have been brought down by the keeper, no penalty was awarded and Kaide Gordon could not convert the loose ball.

Doak was a constant threat and Jaros had to make a strong save late on, but the friendly ended in a 1-0 win for Liverpool and their US tour got off to a positive start.

Liverpool: Kelleher (Jaros 46′); Bradley (Stephenson 63′), Quansah (Phillips 63′), Van den Berg (Chambers 63′), Tsimikas (Beck 63′); Endo (Morton 46′), Jones (Nyoni 30′ Koumas 73′); Salah (Blair 63′), Szoboszlai (Bajcetic 63′), Elliott (Doak 63′), Carvalho (Gordon 63′)

Substitutions not used: Nallo

Next match: Arsenal (Philadelphia, PA) – Pre-Season Friendly – ​​Thursday 1 August 12.30pm (BST)