Largest football attendance in capital for almost 70-years

European champions Liverpool’s friendly match with Napoli at BT Murrayfield stadium ended in a 3-0  defeat, seven days before their domestic campaign begins against Manchester City in the Community Shield.

The game was played in front of 65,442 spectators making it the largest attendance at a football match in Edinburgh for almost 70-years and the largest in Scotland for over 30-years.

Jurgen Klopp selected the same starting XI that drew 2-2
with Sporting CP in New York.

Former Rangers loanee Ryan Kent missing the game due to illness.

There was a familiar face in the
Italian dugout as Napoli are managed by Carlo Ancelotti who managed Chelsea to
the league title 10 years ago.

Ahead of kick off a piper played Amazing Grace as a tribute to the late/great Bill Shankly on the roof of the East Stand before a guitarist played a current Liverpool song about conquering Europe.

Liverpool took the field wearing
an all-black kit whilst Napoli wore their traditional light blue and white. The
usual Murrayfield flames shot high into the sky to welcome both sides.

Nine tenths of the famous stadium
was clad in red however small corner was reserved for the Italians who made
themselves heard throughout.

In contrast, apart from a wonderful rendition of the club anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ the Liverpool fans were strangely subdued throughout.

Scotland international Andy Robertson received a warm welcome from the fans and he created the first chance when his fourth-minute delivery from the left that found Divock Origi, unmarked but his flick went just past the post.

From there, Napoli seized control
and Carlo Ancelotti’s side took the lead when Lorenzo Insigne curled the ball
home from the edge of the box.

Napoli continued to dominate and
doubled their lead before the half-hour when exploiting an opportunity on the
left flank squared the ball for Arek Milik, who toe-poked it into the net from
close range.

Just before the break Georginio
Wijnaldum had the ball in the net but it was ruled out for offside.

Napoli added a third in the 51^st
minute when Simon Mignolet’s save from Insigne’s shot bounced off one of his
own defenders and presented substitute Amin Younes with a tap-in.

The game petered out as Klopp made
10 changes during the second half, including a debut appearance for 16-year-old
Harvey Elliott.

After the game Robertson told LTV:
“We were miles off it and Napoli outplayed us

“It is something we need to
look at because the season starts for real next Sunday. We were pressing in
ones and twos when it is usually threes and fours. Sometimes we looked a bit
foolish.

“We’ve got one more game
before it gets competitive. It’s not crisis meetings or anything like that.
When the season comes round, I’ve got no doubt we will be ready. We need to
start winning games.”

Klopp added “The start and
finish were good, but in between we conceded simple goals.

 “We need to do better. I don’t want to
look for an excuse – and Napoli started pre-season at the same time as us – but
their season starts three weeks after us so they can train nice and smoothly,
but we have to work hard in four weeks and sometimes you have heavy legs in
games like this as a result.

“I knew before we started it
would be exceptionally difficult this summer. From tomorrow [Monday], we have
everyone but Sadio Mane and that’s when we can really start preparing.”

Liverpool: Mignolet, Alexander-Arnott, Matip, Van Dijk,
Robertson, Fabinho, Henderson, Milner, Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Origi.
Subs: Lonergan, Lovren, Gomez, Lallana, Brewster, Lewis, However, Duncan,
Wilson, Elliott, Van den Berg

Napoli Meret, Di Lorenzo, Maksimovic, Manolas, Duarte,
Callejon, Zielinski, Insigne, Mertens, Milik, Verdi. Subs: Idasiak, Gaetano,
Younes, Hysaj, Tutino, Chiriches, Karnezis, Luperto, Choulam.

Referee Bobby Madden

Attendance 65,442