Liverpool put in a clinical display to beat Manchester United in a pre-season friendly on Saturday night.
Fabio Carvalho, Curtis Jones and Kostas Tsimikas were all on the scoresheet for Arne Slot’s side against the Red Devils, who created plenty of chances but now go into the Community Shield off the back of a third defeat in five games this summer.
An energetic start in a cracking atmosphere in South Carolina, from those fans not affected by nightmare traffic, led to Liverpool’s opener as Carvalho spun Casemiro all too easily and earned a slice of luck for his trouble as a low shot deflected in.
Man Utd responded well and Marcus Rashford showed glimpses of scintillating form, with help from sloppy passes out the back by the Liverpool defence. But two of his attempts landed narrowly off-target with another acrobatically parried by Caoimhin Kelleher before they were made to pay for their lack of cutting edge.
Quansah ➡️ Salah ➡️ Jones 🌟
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 4, 2024
Mohamed Salah skipped past Toby Collyer to cross low for a simple finish from Jones on 36 minutes as the Reds doubled their lead from fewer than half the number of shots.
Rashford departed at half-time, having been an injury doubt pre-game, with Scott McTominay among the trio introduced and he popped up in the box to have a first effort blocked by Tsimikas and a second diverted wide by substitute goalkeeper Vitezslav Jaros.
United were once again made to pay when Salah, likely offside in a rare VAR-less game, teed up Conor Bradley on the overlap and Diogo Jota’s shot was handled poorly by Andre Onana. Hot on the rebound, Tsimikas smacked home for 3-0.
Ten Hag will welcome back the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Lisandro Martinez and new signing Joshua Zirkzee ahead of next weekend’s curtain-raiser at Wembley after a mixed pre-season, which continues for Liverpool when both Sevilla and Las Palmas head to Anfield the day after to round off Slot’s preparations.
