Liverpool v Sevilla: pre-season friendly – live!

Excessive heat warning …

Current temperature is 93 degrees, and the National Weather Service has warned everyone in Boston about it.

In Celsius, that’s 34 degrees. That doesn’t sound any better.

Funny how 32 degrees is the threshold for “too cold” in Fahrenheit and “too hot” in Celsius. Such symmetry.

Why is this game at hallowed baseball stadium Fenway Park?

Corporate synergy. The Boston Red Sox, which endured generations of frustration before winning the World Series so often in the past 15 years that it’s become boring, are owned by Fenway Sports Group. Guess which European champion football club Fenway Sports Group also owns?

So, yes, Fenway Sports Group has been rather successful in the past nine months:

If you don’t know Fenway Park, it’s one of those old stadiums that has such a wonderful history that people don’t mind its quirks. Left field is short but prevents easy home runs with the “Green Monster,” a tall edifice upon which many a baseball has bounced.

It’s an odd fit for football, but this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a game there. The park also has hosted a snowboarding “big air” competition.

The perennial top-half finishers in La Liga have had a major makeover this season. The defense was reinforced with a pair of centre backs from Ligue 1 — Jules Kounde (Bordeaux) and Diego Carlos (Nantes). A few new attacking players will compete to fill the hole left by Pablo Sarabia, who left for PSG.

Sevilla: Sergio Rico, Jesús Navas, Diego Carlos, Carriço, Reguilón, Fernando, Jordán, Banega, Ocampos, Nolito, de Jong

Jordán (ex-Eibar), Ocampos (ex-Marseille) and De Jong (ex-PSV) are the newcomers to watch in attack, while goalkeeper Sergio Rico has returned from a loan spell with Fulham.

It’s interesting, especially the inclusion of goalkeeper Andy Lonergan. You’d think the 35-year-old goalkeeper would be here just in case of emergency and that Liverpool would rather look at one of their youngsters instead, but the veteran of roughly a dozen English clubs gets the start tonight.

Other than that, most of the starters will look familiar to anyone who watched Liverpool last season. Welsh winger Harry Wilson, an academy alumnus who scored against Borussia Dortmund a few nights ago, will start again.

Liverpool: Lonergan, Alexander-Arnold, Phillips, van Dijk, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Henderson, Woodburn, Wilson, Origi

The players who have been busy with continental championships — Allison, Salah, Firmino and Mane — are not here. Naby Keita and Shaqiri haven’t been traveling due to injury.

Good evening to all in the UK, good afternoon to all in the USA, and thank you for joining us if you live elsewhere.

If you’re in the USA and have not yet downloaded Bleacher Report Live to the device of your choosing, then do so now if you want to watch the game. We’ll wait …

Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Andy Hunter’s pick of the Liverpool players to watch on their pre-season tour:

With Sadio Mané still involved in the Africa Cup of Nations, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino only just beginning their holidays after international duty and Xherdan Shaqiri injured, Bobby Duncan will get his chance to impress on the US tour, alongside the highly-rated 19-year-old, Rhian Brewster. Duncan formed a prolific strike partnership with Paul Glatzel for the under-18s last season, scoring more than 60 goals in total including the equaliser against Manchester City in the FA Youth Cup final (Duncan) and the winning penalty in the shootout (Glatzel). Duncan won’t be joined by his prolific strike partner, who picked up a knee injury in the friendly win over Tranmere. AH

And here’s reaction from another pre-season friendly, won by Harry Kane with an outrageous goal from the halfway line: