Preview: Reds take on Sporting in NYC as former faces feature in US tour closer

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The Reds are in New York City as they conclude the pre-season tour of the United States with a match against Sporting CP at the Yankee Stadium.

Timings-wise, the match will be played out on Wednesday at 8.05pm (EDT), or the early hours of Thursday at 1.05am (BST) if you’re watching in the UK.

Sporting finished third in last season’s Primeira Liga campaign, though will be hoping a run out against Liverpool can prepare their mettle for the upcoming task of ousting Benfica and Porto in the league.

Jürgen Klopp’s side come into this closing fixture off the back of back-to-back defeats to Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla (though, admittedly, with extenuating circumstances in what was an incendiary game at Fenway Park).

Team News

The Reds will obviously be without the promising Yasser Larouci at left-back – an unfortunate casualty of Sevilla’s needlessly full-throttle approach in Boston.

Harry Wilson, too, is a likely absentee; the young Welshman took a blow to the face after Ever Banega’s errant elbow found his eye.

Equally, Adam Lallana has missed both games out in the US with a dead leg, but could return in New York – the same is more or less true of Nathaniel Clyne.

Bobby Duncan has seemingly recovered from a foot injury sustained in training – coming off the bench against Sevilla, the young Scouser could make an appearance against Sporting.

Ultimately, having proven their fitness from the very start of pre-season, perhaps the likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Fabinho, and Joe Gomez, could find themselves playing from whistle to whistle.

Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Andy Robertson – part of the Reds late contingent – will all be in action as they approach optimum performance.

A question mark continues to hang over new arrival, Sepp van den Berg, whose international clearance doesn’t seem to have been officially confirmed by FIFA as of yet.

Regular fixtures in pre-season, expect to see the likes of Divock Origi, Rhian Brewster, Ryan Kentand perhaps Adam Lewis get a run out in New York. It remains a possibility we’ll see Andy Lonergan in goal again.

Points of Interest

There will not be a reunion with the recently-departed Rafa Camacho, however, as the young Portuguese has been left out of the squad for the fixture.

That said, two former Reds in the form of defensive pair Sebastian Coates and Tiago Illori will be part of Marcel Keizer’s options at the Yankee Stadium.

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