Liverpool pay tribute to Diogo Jota and his brother André in their first friendly

Liverpool 's first pre-season friendly against Preston North End at Deepdale turned into an emotional tribute to Portuguese footballer Diogo Jota and his brother André , who died in a car accident ten days ago.

Emotion filled Liverpool's return to matches, in their first friendly since the loss of Diogo Jota, who was present at every event at Deepdale. Preston captain Ben Whiteman, while a singer sang "You Will Never Walk Alone," laid a wreath at one end of the pitch in memory of the two deceased young players . The visiting fans were also present, thanking the gesture and remembering the Portuguese star.

"Diogo Jota, forever our number 20" read a banner held by a Liverpool fan in the stands, where scarves bearing Jota's name and number were raised, Portuguese flags were piled up, along with shirts bearing the number the club is retiring in his honour. A moving minute of silence was observed as the images of Diogo and André were projected onto the video scoreboards.

The grief-stricken faces of Liverpool's starters in the center circle, with a deeply moved Mohamed Salah , and on the bench, led by manager Arne Slot, and the presence of captains who weren't expected to play, dressed in street clothes, such as Robertson and Virgil Van Dijk, marked the first of the tributes to be paid at a Reds match. Both teams wore black armbands.

On the sporting front, Liverpool won their first test 3-1 , with Arne Slot fielding two different teams in each half, with Giorgi Mamardashvili making his debut in goal in the first half and Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez making their debuts in the second.

The first goal of the friendly came from a Chiesa cross that Szoboszlai failed to finish, and Conor Bradley tapped in at the far post for a free kick. Earlier, in the 20th minute, images of Diogo and André were shown on the video scoreboards again. Liverpool fans spent ten minutes singing the chant they composed for Diogo Jota, which was always heard in the Anfield stands.

Already in the second half, at 53 minutes, a serious error by center-back Storey on a back pass to his goalkeeper left Darwin Nuñez alone one-on-one with Iversen, whom he beat with a cutback to score at will and perform the two celebrations that Diogo Jota always did in his memory. The Uruguayan striker ended up sitting on the turf with his hands simulating a video game.

Gakpo repeated the gesture with his arms in his celebration for Diogo, after scoring the third with his right foot, after Liam Lindsay had reduced the deficit by scoring Preston's goal with a header from a corner.