We have now kicked off our pre-season campaign with a 4-3 victory over Guangdong Sunray Cave. It was an exciting game with chances at both ends and goals through-out the game. It was a good start to the game with Liverpool attacking early and Poulsen putting a ball into the box which flew over the bar. 5 minutes in and we had the first clear cut chance of the game. Dani Pacheco put in the corner and Danny Wilson got his head on the ball but it flew just inches past the post. That set the tone for the game. Despite Liverpool having the early chances, Guangdong had a couple of chances. A corner came in and Steer saw his effort parried away by Gulacsi. Some neat interchange play between Joe Cole and N'gog saw a shot by N'Gog well saved by the Guangdong keeper. N'Gog kept going and had a goal ruled out for offside. Liverpool kept going and got their rewards in the 19th minute when the ball was played out to Joe Cole and he played a lovely ball into the path of Christian Poulsen who side-footed the ball into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal. It got better for Liverpool two minutes later when some neat play between N'Gog and Jonjo Shelvey resulted in N'Gog going through one on one with the goalkeeper which he then finished neatly. It was looking good for a new-look Liverpool side and there was some lovely play in the 33rd minute. Flanagan played a short pass into the feet of N'Gog who then backflicked it into the path of Dani Pacheco who played a ball into Spearing who was on the edge of the box. Spearing played a defence-splitting pass into the path of Pacheco who shot just wide. Despite all of Liverpool's good play, they were punished late in the first-half. Shelvey gave away the ball in Guangdong's half and they pushed forward. The ball was played in and Ricardo Steer got the ball ahead of Gulacsi and it flew into the back of the net. The half-time whistle went and despite Liverpool's good play, the scoreline was close at 2-1. The second half brought wholesale changes with the whole team being replaced by a mix of the 'bigger names' and some of our promising youngsters. The start of the second half was pretty quiet with Liverpool playing possession football. There were a couple of chances with Adam playing some decent passes and Maxi shooting into the side neeting and some nice play resulted in Maxi shooting straight into the goalkeeper's hands. Liverpool kept pushing and they got their reward in the 72th minute. Carroll picked up the ball and pushed forward. He was running out of space until he noticed the run of Connor Coady. He played the ball into feet and Connor collected the ball on the edge of the box and finished perfectly. Liverpool continued to press our Chinese opposition and our £35M man got our 4th goal in the 85th minute. Maxi collected the ball and came inside to play the ball into Carroll who side-footed the ball home. Everything was looking good until the 90th minute. Late goals from Lu Lin and Yin Hongbo made the scoreline look a lot more close than the game was. Final score: Guangdong Sunray Cave 3-4 Liverpool FC. In conclusion, it was a good work-out for the lads. King Kenny will want to address the late goals conceded in the first-half and the second-half but we have all of pre-season to sort that out.
Pleased with the win, my only worry is Pacheco. He seemed to be off the pace in a game where he should be taking his opportunity to impress. Early days yet and hopefully he will improve. Great to see Coady doing the opposite and taking his opportunity with a solid performance.
Nice overview Chris. Thanks for that. I think you're doing a thread for Saturday. However, I should be able to watch it as I won't be at work. Keep up the good work! Cheers, RHC.
Don't jump down my throat here lads but, does it really matter that much? It's the first pre season game against Chinese opponents, it's not like it's the Emirates cup or a similar proper tournament!
Just matters to us, 1st game of what seemed like a year long pre-season, you must be looking forward to your first game?
It's a fair point but I ain't done an analysis of a game before so I thought doing one for a pre-season friendly would be a good way to start.
Yeah, course I am. Was just having a joke really. I seriously doubt anyone will care enough to do this on our site though.
Because a graveyard has more activity than your dead board. I think it is probably due to the fact that 90% of your fans dont speak English
Whereas 90% of the Liverpool fans on here are actually Irish, so what's your non point? That they speak English with an Irish accent? You're talking bollocks. Look, you're obviously having a bad day Skylarker, your nonsense over on our dead board tells me that, so I don't want to get involved ok? That client of yours give you some bad news or something?
Sure it's the first game and it was against unknown opposition. I believe that most of us were just glad to see most of the squad out on the pitch again. It's sad that you will probably not have the same facility on your board.
I don't want to get into all the posts after this, but because we have an interest in these games and the team, it matters to us. Its the start of the season, lots of new players new new coach new season, all to look forward to so no wonder there is interest in these games. it can't be all CL finals eh? Anyways I wouldn't worry about the late goals tbh, and he changed the team at half time. The result is not important, what we get out of these games is what is important
Mate, you need to lighten up. Perhaps take some lessons in sarcasm My client was a sex offender - so he doesn't often come to me with great fun news!
I'm a little disappointed with the result today, I thought we had enough class to win it 4-0. I didn't watch the last 10 minutes where it all supposedly happened as I had to go out. I liked the look of Coady and Wisdom, played superbly from what I could see. Wisdom in particular.
