Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss.
Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how.
It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely emotional occasion, and less than two days since the club retired Jota’s No. 20 shirt.
Photo: EPA
There was no pressure on Liverpool to honor a friendly that could have been canceled easily, unlike their commitment to a tour of Hong Kong and Japan at the end of this month, but at no point was that option relayed to Preston.
Delaying a first appearance since the incident until they play Milan in Hong Kong on July 26 or Yokohama F. Marinos at the Nissan Stadium in Japan four days later was not considered a suitable alternative by Liverpool’s players.
The consensus was to get out and play, albeit while being acutely aware of how difficult the first steps would be.
Photo: EPA
The club are having to balance the professional obligations of preparing for a new season with the personal tragedy that has enveloped players, coaches and staff. They have lost a much-loved friend at the age of 28 and someone who was a positive, vocal presence in the dressing room.
Jota was a player who managed to enforce standards at Liverpool, while lifting the atmosphere, club officials said.
New signings Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Giorgi Mamardashvili were due to report for the usual pre-season tests on July 4, with their teammates starting back from Tuesday onward, but all soccer-related activity was placed on hold once the deaths of Jota and Silva were confirmed.
Some did report to training on Tuesday, but the full squad were not reunited at the training ground until the end of last week, having been given time to process Jota’s death.
Somber training sessions have been followed by visits to the mass of bouquets and scarves left in tribute to Jota and Silva behind the main stand at Anfield.
The whole first team attended the scene on Friday in the company of Jota’s wife, Rute Cardoso, and parents, Isabel and Joaquim.
Andy Robertson, one of Jota’s closest friends at the club, had led the way earlier in the week with his tribute to “MacJota,” so called by the Scotland captain given the striker’s love of darts, horse racing and British life.
Former players Steven Gerrard and Adam Lallana were also among the thousands who have paid their respects at Anfield.
Luis Diaz and Alisson returned to pre-season training on Merseyside via Jota’s home city of Gondomar, near Porto. The Liverpool forward and goalkeeper were unable to attend the brothers’ funeral on July 5 because they were in Colombia and Brazil respectively.
However, along with some of Jota’s Portugal teammates, including Ruben Neves, Jose Sa and Diogo Costa, and the Penafiel team that Silva played for, they attended a seventh-day mass in memory of the siblings at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar on Wednesday.
Liverpool and Preston would pay several tributes to Jota and Silva at Deepdale. The home team would lay a wreath close to the Liverpool fans, there would be a rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone and a minute’s silence before kick-off, and both sets of players would wear black armbands.
Fans had called for Liverpool to retire the No. 20 shirt, and the club did so after consulting his family.
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
RSS