Liverpool pay emotional tribute to Diogo Jota at Preston friendly

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