Liverpool draw 2-2 against Sporting CP

Liverpool’s final pre-season tour of the United States ended in a 2-2 draw at Yankee Stadium as the Reds went up against Sporting CP in the Western Union Cup. Sporting CP are one of the most popular and successful European teams coming from Lisbon, Portugal, and have won 50 trophies in their 113 year history. 

This was the third and final game in Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the United States. The previous two games saw them defeated by Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla. For this reason, Reds manager, Jurgen Klopp, brought out the big guns with a starting line up that included 7 of the 11 players that began in the Champions League final game against Tottenham.

Despite two other US losses, pre-game football betting tips and predictions had mostly favoured a Liverpool victory due to their strong performance in the previous season and their recent Champions League victory. They had also won 6 of the previous 8 games going into the match against Sporting CP, making them the clear favourite.

Although the score at the end of the match was a 2-2 draw, the game could have easily ended in a victory for the Reds. Liverpool took significantly more shots at goal, with a total of 16, 5 of which were on target.

Whilst Sporting CP had fewer shots but were more accurate with them, taking just 11 shots, 5 of which were also on target. The fans didn’t have to wait too long for the action to begin as Sporting took an early lead in the fourth minute, when captain Bruno Fernandes scored from 25 yards out thanks to a mistake by Liverpool keeper, Simon Mignolet. This set back didn’t affect the Liverpool players too much as the score was evened out by Divock Origi just 16 minutes later.

The game was fairly evenly matched in the first half, although Liverpool were able to take the lead when Georginio Wijnaldum scored just before halftime, bringing the score to 2-1. Sporting equalised 8 minutes into the second half when Marcus Wendel scored their second and final goal of the match.

This was one of the last pre season games for Liverpool ahead of the start of the 2019/2020 Premier League season which kicks off on August 10th. The Reds will be looking to build on the successes of 2018/19 after winning the Champions League title for the 6th time and coming very close to winning the top flight league in England since 1990.

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Source: anfieldhq.com