Pre-season Daily Digest: Wirtz and Ngumoah shine for Liverpool as Newcastle woes continue

Liverpool's Florian Wirtz, centre, is greeted by teammate Curtis Jones after scoring a goal during the friendly win over Yokohama F. Marinos in Yokohama, Japan

Pre-season is in full swing and with plenty of Premier League interest amidst one of the biggest transfer windows in football history.

From first goals to brilliant strikes, here is your pre-season digest.

Record signing Wirtz opens his Liverpool account as Reds finish tour with victory

For a brief spell in the second half against Yokohama FM, Liverpool were again facing defeat as they fell behind in the second half after Asahi Uenaka’s opener, but Wirtz got the reds back on terms with his first goal for the Reds.

After a brilliant counter-attack from Curtis Jones, who played a 1-2 for Salah before flicking the ball to Wirtz who slotted into the bottom corner.

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No Diaz no problem as wonderkid Ngumoah scores brilliant solo goal

As Liverpool bid farwell to Luis Diaz as the winger joins Bayern Munich, Arne Slot sees a future Liverpool left-winger in 16-year-old Rio Ngumoah.

After Treymaurice Nyoni’s goal put the Reds 2-1 up, Ngumoah then reminded Slot of his quality in the closing stages as he joined them on the scoresheet, firing home from the edge of the area after a dancing run to widen the margin.

Wataru Endo also had a day to remember as he captained Liverpool in front of his own fans, and the midfielder cam agonisingly close scoring a header.

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Alex Murphy starts but Newcastle’s summer woes continue with defeat in South Korea

Former Galway United man Alex Murphy played 90 minutes for Newcastle, but Eddie Howe’s side continued their torrid pre-season with a shock 1-0 defeat to the K-League All-Stars in South Korea.

Murphy joined the Magpies in 2022 and will hope that he has done enough to give Howe a silver lining in what has been a nightmare on and off the field, with Alexander Isak’s future in major doubt.

Newcastle have endured a tough summer in the transfer market and have already lost out to United for Bryan Mbeumo.

The prospect of missing out on another key target should Benjamin Sesko opt for Old Trafford would be a fresh blow to Eddie Howe.

Gyokeres could make debut in North London derby

Mikel Arteta suggested Viktor Gyokeres could make his Arsenal debut against Tottenham on Thursday.

Gyokeres completed his move to Arsenal from Sporting last Saturday as part of a deal worth an initial £54.4million, before immediately flying out to join Arsenal on their pre-season tour in Singapore.

Gyokeres was paraded in front of fans on Sunday and watched from the stands as the Gunners beat Newcastle 3-2.

The 27-year-old then trained with his new team-mates on Tuesday before Arsenal flew out to Hong Kong, where they are taking on Tottenham on Thursday.

Gyokeres missed pre-season training at Sporting as he tried to force through a move to Arsenal and Arteta said last week that the medical staff needed to assess him.

Asked if the striker could make his debut against Spurs, Arteta said: “He has only done today's session and yesterday very little.

“We are going to assess tonight where he is. If the medical staff are pleased with his condition it is possible."

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