Liverpool made it five wins out of six ahead of the new season, as we wrapped up our pre-season campaign with a 2-1 victory over League One side Swindon Town – with Christian Benteke and Sheyi Ojo scoring the goals.
After a goalless first-half, in which the visitors had the better of the chances and the possession but failed to make a breakthrough, it took a moment of brilliance from Benteke to open the scoring – bringing the ball down on his chest before volleying it superbly into the net.
Jonathan Obika brought the home side level after good work on the edge of the area from Anton Rodgers – son of Liverpool manager Brendan – and it looked as though Swindon had done enough to earn a draw.
However, Ojo’s late effort was only palmed up in the air by Lawrence Vigouroux, and the ball dropped down agonisingly into the net – much to the despair of the Liverpool goalkeeper, on trial at Swindon today.
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Read the full Liverpool player ratings below:
GK) Adam Bogdan – 6 (Fulton – 67′)
Dealt well with a couple of testing crosses – in contrast to Mignolet on Saturday – and handled the ball well throughout the game. He couldn’t do anything about the goal, which was a fine finish, and had little else to do.
RB) Trent Alexander-Arnold – 6 (Cleary – 58′)
Looked understandably nervous early on and had a couple of loose touches. Improved as the game went on and looked more than decent for a 16-year-old. He’ll have done his future prospects no harm at all with this showing.
CB) Kolo Toure – 6
Captain for the day, Toure went about his work as we all would have expected. He was rarely stretched by the Swindon attack and will be quietly confident of having a bit more game time this season than we might expect.
CB) Mamadou Sakho – 7
The Frenchman looks a lot more at home on the ball than Dejan Lovren. The confidence is there and he looked at ease in possession this evening. It would come as a real surprise if he didn’t get the nod against Stoke, wouldn’t it?
LB) Alberto Moreno – 5
Failed to get a foot in and prevent the goal, allowing his man to cut inside and get his shot away. Should have scored in the second-half as well when he went through on goal. Joe Gomez must be feeling pretty confident.
DM) Lucas Leiva – 5
Unusually sloppy at times. With Allen injured, it could well come down to Lucas against Can for the final midfield spot – alongside Henderson and Milner – for the Stoke game, and he didn’t particularly impress here.
CM) Emre Can – 8 (Chirivella – 76′)
Did his chances of earning a midfield place no harm at all with this performance. His marauding runs forward caused plenty of problems for the Swindon defence and he’s probably in pole position for a spot against Stoke.
CM) Joe Allen – 5 (Teixeira – 13′)
Limped off the field early on in the game. Latched on to one stray cross that went over Benteke’s head and saw his effort well blocked by the defender inside his own penalty area. You’d imagine he’s unlikely to feature next week.
RW) Lazar Markovic – 5
Really struggled to get involved in the game as much as he would have liked. Gave the ball away far too often and will ultimately be disappointed that he didn’t make more of a rare chance. Will he even make the bench at Stoke?
AM) Roberto Firmino – 6 (Kent – 67′)
Encouraging. Looked lively in the first-half. There was one heart-stopping moment when he went down clutching his shin after a challenge from Swindon keeper Vigouroux, who as we mentioned, ironically belongs to us!
ST) Christian Benteke – 7 (Ojo – 67′)
He was quiet for large spells of the game and will have wanted to have done better with the couple of chances that did come his way in the first-half. However, he showed all his qualities with a truly brilliant finish after the break.
Subs:
1) Joao Carlos Teixeira – 7 – Plenty of nice touches and looked very comfortable in midfield.
2) Daniel Cleary – 5 – A little shaky at full-back. It would’ve been interesting to see him in his natural central role.
3) Ryan Fulton – 6 – The young goalkeeper had very little to do, but was quick off his line when needed.
4) Ryan Kent – 8 – A real live-wire after coming on mid-way through the second-half. Very impressive outing.
5) Sheyi Ojo – 7 – There was a real slice of fortune about his goal. Still, you take it don’t you?!
6) Pedro Chirivella – 5 – Sadly limped off just a few minutes after coming on.
