For seven minutes after the final whistle, Liverpool players and staff stood in front of their supporters at Preston as they chanted Diogo Jota’s name.
Sunday’s pre-season friendly at Deepdale was originally envisaged as a day to kick-start preparations for Liverpool’s Premier League title defence, but it played out as a memorial service for Jota and his brother Andre Silva, 10 days after they died in a car accident in Spain.
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.
It began with a beautiful performance of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ by Claudia Rose Maguire, wife of former Preston player Sean, before kick-off.
As Maguire sang Liverpool’s anthem, Preston captain Ben Whiteman walked the length of the pitch to lay a wreath in front of the visiting fans, with the Bill Shankly Kop dominated by banners and scarves bearing Jota’s name.
Liverpool supporters sung the first of many renditions of their Jota chant 20 minutes before kick-off.
When they rose to sing it again 20 minutes into the match, marking the squad number that Liverpool retired this week, supporters in all four stands at Deepdale rose to their feet to join the applause.
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.
Liverpool have been in mourning since the news of Jota’s death came early on the morning of July 3, only 11 days after the 28-year-old father of three had married his long-term partner Rute Cardoso.
Several Liverpool players attended his funeral in Portugal last Saturday, with others at a memorial that took place in midweek. Players were allowed extra time to report back for pre-season as a result.
There had been question marks over whether this fixture would go ahead, but in an interview published on Liverpool’s website on Sunday morning, Arne Slot said: “We are a football club and we need to train and we need to play again, if we want it or not.”
The grieving process will continue, but this felt an important step as a match that might otherwise have been about their new signings – Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong came off the bench after Giorgi Mamardashvili started in goal – became a moment to play in honour of the memory of Jota and Silva.
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.
