Liverpool fans happy as ‘Orange’ reach Premier League Asia Trophy final with win over Crystal Palace
Dominic Solanke and Divock Origi on the scoresheet as Jurgen Klopp’s men record 2-0 at Hong Kong Stadium to set up a final with Leicester City, who earlier beat West Bromwich Albion on penalties
After all the promo junkets, marketing opportunities, “fan engagement” and “brand activation’, some football actually broke out around the Premier League Asia Trophy on Wednesday night – and it was the perfect result as far as locals were concerned.
For the Hong Kong crowd, this might as well be called the Liverpool Asia Trophy, and they were sent home happy after seeing new signing Dominic Solanke and Divock Origi score against Crystal Palace to send their team into Saturday’s final against Leicester City.
“It was an all-round good performance … because it’s been funny weather with rain and then the heat today it was tough for both teams but I thought both played well,” said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
“The atmosphere was really nice, we came in as the other game was still running, the boys had a look and were really impressed and were already looking forward to it. If you’re in a tournament you want to be in the final no matter what tournament it is ... we’ll try everything to win it in a nice stadium with a fantastic atmosphere.”
Despite their preparations being disrupted by rain, captain Jordan Henderson said: “We actually enjoyed the conditions, it’s been something different for us, it’s been a good test and for the lads, it’s been brilliant, we enjoyed the past few days.
“The weather hasn’t been great but we managed to train yesterday and we managed to play on the day and playing football and getting minutes so everybody is happy.”
