Liverpool continue their pre-season preparations this afternoon with a friendly against Monaco. The Reds are back in familiar surroundings for the first time this summer, hosting the French side at Anfield in what will be Andoni Iraola’s first home game in charge since taking over as head coach.
Pre-season progress
A summer tour in the United States was considered a success by the Liverpool boss, despite the second half collapse against Leeds United last weekend. Though after taking on two Premier League teams and Wrexham in Nashville, New York City and Chicago respectively, Iraola’s side will now face a European outfit with Monaco offering a completely different test.
Filipe Luis, formerly of Chelsea, has overseen two wins, a draw and a defeat in pre-season so far, and is set to use this friendly and the trip to Coventry next week to ensure his players are sharp for their Conference League play-off against either Ferencvaros or Gornik Zabrze.
Familiar faces
There will be some familiar faces in the Monaco ranks on Merseyside today, including former Tottenham defender Eric Dier and ex-Arsenal forward Folarin Balogun, but Takumi Minamino misses out on an Anfield reunion because of injury.
Meetings between Liverpool and Monaco down the years have been rare. They’ve faced off just twice and that was during the Champions League over 20 years ago as they traded wins in the group phase.
How to watch
In the UK, the game will be televised live on All Red Video, Liverpool’s in-house video streaming service, with kick-off at 2.30pm BST. All of Liverpool’s pre-season fixtures will be broadcast via All Red Video, which requires a membership. An annual subscription costs £42.99.
