AC Milan defeat Liverpool 4-2 in pre-season friendly in Hong Kong SAR

AC Milan beat Liverpool 4-2 in a pre-season friendly in China's Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) on Saturday, as the Premier League club's record signing Florian Wirtz made his first start in the loss.

Former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish laid a wreath before the game, and the players wore "Diogo J 20" on their shirts in honor of late teammate Diogo Jota, who died along with his brother Andre Silva in a car accident in Spain earlier in July.

The English champions fell behind in the 10th minute when Rafael Leao scored from a Christian Pulisic pass. Dominik Szoboszlai leveled the match 20 minutes later with a curling shot from the edge of the box, following a pass from Rio Ngumoha, who latched onto a long ball from Ryan Gravenberch.

Leao orchestrated a devastating counter-attack as AC Milan reclaimed the lead early in the second half. The Portuguese winger powered past Conor Bradley on the left flank and squared up for Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who fired home from inside the box.

Mohamed Salah spurned an opportunity from a Wirtz pass and Liverpool looked increasingly vulnerable as the contest continued. Noah Okafor notched AC Milan's third goal in the 60th minute.

"The most beautiful and important thing I'm happy about in these first 20 days of work, is because the team has a proactive attitude, and significantly raised its level of endurance," AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri said. "As for Leao, I believe he's growing, and has the mature mindset to have a great season."

AC Milan appointed Allegri in May for a second stint in the dugout after sacking Sergio Conceicao, with the team having finished in eighth place in Serie A to miss out on European competition for the first time since 2019.

Cody Gakpo nodded in a stoppage-time effort for Liverpool, before Okafor walked in his second goal following a bad mix-up between Kostas Tsimikas and new Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, who had rushed out of his box.

"Conceding four isn't what we want, but you have to consider the circumstances. We missed seven senior players, and wanted to give 20 players playing time, so players have to play out of position," Liverpool manager Arne Slot said. "We still were able to play our normal game, but we were a bit too open in the counterattack."

Mamardashvili replaced Alisson Becker in the second half, while AC Milan's new defender Pervis Estupinan, who joined from Brighton & Hove Albion, also made his unofficial debut.

Wirtz and Ngumoha were the standouts for Liverpool in the first half, and Jeremie Frimpong impressed in the second, but Slot's team were outplayed by their Italian opponents.

Slot confirmed that winger Luis Diaz did not play due to speculation over a potential move away from the club, while forward Darwin Nunez and defender Joe Gomez were sidelined with injuries.

Liverpool will travel to Japan next to take on Yokohama F. Marinos in the J League World Challenge on Wednesday. They will begin their Premier League title defense at home against Bournemouth on August 15.