Liverpool closed out their United States pre-season tour in emphatic fashion on Saturday night, hammering Manchester United 3-0 at the Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia.
Goals from Fabio Carvalho, Curtis Jones and Kostas Tsimikas were enough to see Arne Slot’s side past the Red Devils, who had their chances to fire back. However a strong first-half goalkeeping performance from Caoimhin Kelleher preserved the clean sheet.
The result follows a 1-0 win against Real Betis and a 2-1 victory over Arsenal, giving Slot the strongest possible start to his Liverpool head coaching career.
Slot and his side are already on their way back to Merseyside with the remainder of the squad set to recommence training on Tuesday.
READ MORE: Buy new Liverpool 2024/25 away kit
There were 78,000 fans in attendance here for a game that had been sold out well in advance and they got their money’s worth through Carvalho’s brilliant ninth-minute opener.
The Portugal under-21 international sold Casemiro a dummy on the edge of the box before firing an accurate low finish past Andre Onana.
Satisfactory night for Slot
It was 2-0 before the break with Mohamed Salah beating Toby Collyer all ends up down the right side and putting the ball across the face of goal.
Curtis Jones and Aaron Wan-Bissaka were in a foot race and it was the Liverpool man who got the final touch ahead of the United right back.
READ MORE: Liverpool pre-season game set to be CANCELLED
Conor Bradley made a surging right-sided run after the break, resulting in a shot for Diogo Jota. Onana managed to keep out the Portugal forward but Greek left back Tsimikas prodded home the rebound.
That capped a satisfactory night for the Reds and their new head coach, who is still without several of his Euro 2024 and Copa America stars.
Ryan Gravenberch and Ibrahima Konate were back in the starting XI here but there was no place for Dominik Szoboszlai. Slot hinted that the Hungary captain was left out as a precaution having played a lot of football stateside since the team’s arrival at the end of July.
The Reds will play Sevilla on August 11 in Slot’s first Anfield outing with a game scheduled against Las Palmas the day before, but that one is still shrouded in doubt.
