Photo: AFC Bournemouth / CC BY 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Andoni Iraola began his Liverpool tenure with a 4-2 pre-season friendly victory over Sunderland at GEODIS Park in Nashville on Saturday. It was the club's first warm-up fixture of the summer.
Kieran Morrison gave Liverpool the lead on 12 minutes, slotting a low left-footed shot into the bottom corner after a pass from Harvey Elliott. Sunderland levelled on 28 minutes when Enzo Le Fee drove a long-range effort past Giorgi Mamardashvili, and Timur Tutierov put the Black Cats ahead four minutes into the second half.
Liverpool responded through Dominik Szoboszlai, who controlled a loose ball on his chest outside the area and found the inside of the near post to make it 2-2 on 56 minutes. Federico Chiesa then restored Liverpool's lead with a finish from the corner of the six-yard box, before Lewis Koumas wrapped up the scoring with 10 yards to spare four minutes from time.
Iraola named a mixed squad for his first starting line-up, with Joe Gomez wearing the captain's armband. The centre-back was forced off inside the opening 10 minutes with a knock, replaced by Ifeanyi Ndukwe, with Kostas Tsimikas assuming the captaincy.
The manager made five further changes at half-time as Liverpool turned the game around in the second period. Attendance at GEODIS Park was 24,897.
Liverpool: Mamardashvili (Woodman, 67), Gomez (Ndukwe, 8), Jones (Nyoni, 46), Elliott (Szoboszlai, 46), Tsimikas (Kerkez, 46), Frimpong (Ramsay, 67), McConnell (Scanlon, 56), Morrison (Abe, 67), Ngumoha (Koumas, 46), N'Diaye (Chambers, 67), Wright (Chiesa, 46). Unused subs: Davies, Sonni-Lambie.