Liverpool pay emotional tribute to Diogo Jota at Preston friendly

ITV News

a day ago

Liverpool FC players and staff have paid an emotional tribute to Diogo Jota as they chanted his name for seven minutes following their match against Preston.
The game was Liverpool's first since the Jota, and his brother Andre Silva, were killed in a car accident in Spain on 3 July.
Before kick-off a rendition of 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and Preston's club song 'Can't Help Falling In Love With You' was performed by Claudio Rose Maguire, wife of former Preston player Sean.
As Maguire sang Liverpool's anthem, Preston captain Ben Whiteman laid a wreath in front of the visiting fans, with the Bill Shankly Kop dominated by banners and scarves bearing Jota's name.
Liverpool supporters had sung the first of many renditions of his song 20 minutes before kick-off.
There had been questions over whether the pre-season friendly at Deepdale would go ahead as Liverpool players – several of whom attended the funeral of the two brothers in Portugal – were given extra time before reporting for pre-season training, but it became an opportunity to honour their memories.
Jota, 28, and Silva, 25, were killed when a tyre on the car in which they were travelling burst in Zamora, northern Spain. Jota's death came just 11 days after the father of three had married his long-time partner Rute.
On the pitch Liverpool eased to a 3-1 win through goals from Conor Bradley, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo but thoughts of Jota and Silva remained at the forefront throughout the day.
Fan rose again to sing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' 20 minutes into the match - marking the squad number that Liverpool have since retired - with supporters in all four stands at Deepdale rising to their feet to join the applause.
'We will always carry him with us in our hearts, in our thoughts, wherever we go,' boss Arne Slot said on the club website. 'To retire his shirt is the one thing we could, should and have done…
'I think what I take comfort in (is that) in the last month of his life he was a champion in everything. A champion for his family, which is the main and most important thing, because he got married.
'A champion for his country because he won the Nations League, (with) a country that he cared about so much, because he also wore the flag when we had celebrations. And of course a champion for us by winning the Premier League.'
Mohamed Salah, captain of a young Liverpool side that started the game, looked visibly moved by the moment as an image of the brothers – together at Porto in their youth – was shown on the big screen inside the stadium.
And when Nunez scored Liverpool's second early in the second half, he delivered two of Jota's celebrations – first the shark gesture Jota gave when he scored against Everton at Goodison Park, then another imitating playing video games.
Asked about the decision to continue the game, Slot said: 'Nothing seems to be important if we think of what has happened. But we are a football club and we need to train and we need to play again, if we want it or not.
'It's very difficult to find the right words because we constantly debate what is appropriate. What is appropriate in our actions? What is appropriate (for) what we have to say? Can we train again? Can we laugh again? Can we be angry if there's a wrong decision?
'And I've said to them, maybe the best thing for us to do is handle this situation like Jota. And what I meant with that is that Jota was always himself, it didn't matter if he was talking to me, to his team-mates, to the staff, he was always himself. So let us try to be ourselves as well.'
Bradley opened the scoring in the 34th minute, prodding in at the back post after neat work from Rio Ngumoha and Federico Chiesa, and half-time substitute Nunez pounced on a mistake from Jordan Storey to score the second eight minutes into the second half.
Eight minutes from time Preston substitute Liam Lindsay headed past his former team-mate Freddie Woodman, who joined Liverpool from North End at the start of the month, but it felt right for Liverpool to have the final say through Gakpo.