Milan beats Liverpool as Wirtz makes debut
AC Milan beat Liverpool 4-2 in a pre-season friendly in Hong Kong as the Premier League champion's record signing Florian Wirtz made his first start for them.
Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish laid a wreath before the game and the players had "Diogo J 20" on their shirts in honour of former team-mate Diogo Jota, who died along with his brother Andre Silva in a car accident in Spain on 3 July.
The Reds fell behind in the 10th minute when Rafael Leao scored from a Christian Pulisic pass.
Dominik Szoboszlai levelled 20 minutes later with a curling shot from the edge of the box after an assist by Rio Ngumoha, who latched on to a long ball from Ryan Gravenberch.
Leao orchestrated a devastating counter-attack as Milan reclaimed the lead early in the second half. The Portuguese winger powered past Conor Bradley on the left flank and squared for Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who fired home from inside the box.
Mohamed Salah spurned an opportunity from a Wirtz assist and Liverpool looked increasingly vulnerable as time passed by. Noah Okafor added Milan's third in the 60th minute.
"The most beautiful and important thing I'm happy about in these first 20 days of work because the team has a proactive attitude and significantly raised its level of endurance," Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri said.
"As for Leao, I believe he's growing and has the mature mindset to have a great season."
Milan appointed Allegri in May for a second stint after sacking Sergio Conceicao, having finished eighth in Serie A and missing out on European competition for the first time since 2019.
Cody Gakpo nodded in a stoppage-time consolation for Liverpool before Okafor walked in his second after a bad mix-up between Kostas Tsimikas and new Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, who had rushed out of his box.
"Conceding four isn't what we want but you have to consider the circumstances, we missed seven senior players, and wanted to give 20 players playing time, so players have to play out of position," Liverpool manager Arne Slot said.
"We still were able to play our normal game, but we were a bit too open in the counter-attack."
Mamardashvili replaced Alisson Becker in the second half, while Milan's new defender Pervis Estupinan, who joined from Brighton and Hove Albion, also made his debut.
Wirtz and Ngumoha were the standouts for Liverpool in the first half, and Jeremie Frimpong impressed in the second but Arne Slot's team was outplayed by its Italian opponent.
Slot confirmed that winger Luis Diaz did not play because of speculation over a move away from Liverpool, while forward Darwin Nunez and defender Joe Gomez were sidelined with injuries.
Liverpool travels next to Japan to take on Yokohama FM in the J League World Challenge. It begins its Premier League title defence at home to Bournemouth on 16 August (AEST).
