Liverpool are without the services of Wataru Endo at the moment with the 30-year-old captaining Japan at the AFC Asian Cup in Qatar.
Japan got off the mark during their first game of the tournament earlier today as they defeated Vietnam 4-2 at the Al Thumama Stadium in Doha.
With the game ticking towards half time Vietnam found themselves somewhat surprisingly 2-1 up against Samurai Blue – that was until current Red Endo combined superbly with ex-Red Takumi Minamino to level matters at the interval.
Japan would go on to score twice more in the second half to pick up three points to leave them top of Group D before Indonesia’s clash with Iraq tomorrow.
Our No. 3 was signed from Stuttgart in the summer for just £16.2m but has become an integral part of Jurgen Klopp’s squad in recent months with a number of quality performances in the engine room.
He’s registered two goals and an assist for Liverpool this term (across all competitions) and picked up another assist for his country today as he slid a neat pass into the path of Minamino who finished superbly.
We’re hoping to have Endo back on Merseyside as soon as possible but Japan are one of the favourites to win the Asian Cup so he may very well go all the way!
Check his assist and our former No. 18’s finish below via @LFCTransferRoom on X:
Wataru Endo ➡️ Takumi Minamino
Current Red and former Red linking up for Japan’s equaliser!🇯🇵🔴 pic.twitter.com/n1CPqRojpd
— LFC Transfer Room (@LFCTransferRoom) January 14, 2024