Liverpool vs Como: Two Matches, Six Hours Apart

Liverpool vs Como on Sunday is not one football match. It is two. The clubs meet twice on 16 August, starting with a low-key morning fixture played away from the cameras, then again at Anfield at 6pm BST in front of a full house. Roughly six hours separate the two kick-offs, and the teams that take the field will look almost nothing alike.

The oddity is deliberate. This is the last competitive work either squad gets before the season proper, and Andoni Iraola needs minutes in a lot of legs at once. Rather than split a squad across two different opponents in two different cities, Liverpool have simply booked the same Italian side twice. The morning game hands run-outs to fringe players and academy graduates; the evening one is where Iraola names something close to his first-choice team.

There is a reason supporters want to see it. Liverpool have lost both of their most recent friendlies, going down 4-2 to Leeds United on the American leg of the tour and then 3-2 to Monaco at home. That is seven goals conceded in two matches. A back line that has been rebuilt on the hoof gets one more rehearsal before the results start counting.

Why the same opponent turns up twice

Blame the calendar. A summer World Cup pushed international players back into pre-season weeks later than usual, and Liverpool are still absorbing late returners. Alexis Mac Allister and Víctor Muñoz have only just come back from post-tournament breaks. Como have the same problem in reverse — Nico Paz reported late having gone all the way to the final. Doubling up against one opponent is the tidiest way to give everyone something.

The Liverpool vs Como team news that matters

Five players are unavailable, and the pattern is not reassuring: it is the defence and the forward line that have been hit. Iraola is picking around gaps rather than choosing between options.

Who is definitely out

Conor Bradley remains sidelined with a knee problem. Hugo Ekitiké is out with an Achilles injury. Joe Gomez picked up a muscle issue against Sunderland. Giovanni Leoni is still working back from the anterior cruciate ligament injury he suffered on his debut a year ago — a brutal piece of timing for a player who has barely been seen since arriving. Sports Illustrated also lists Stefan Bajčetić among the absentees.

Who could feature for the first time

Jérémy Jacquet is the one to watch. The young centre-back missed the Monaco defeat with an unspecified complaint but has returned to full team training, and he is widely expected to start at Anfield. Ronald Araújo, on loan from Barcelona, could also make an unofficial first appearance. Wataru Endō is back in the group after a long lay-off, which quietly matters more than it sounds.

The XI most people expect to see

The consensus prediction across previews is a 4-2-3-1: Alisson in goal; Jeremy Frimpong, Jacquet, Virgil van Dijk and Milos Kerkez across the back; Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch screening them; Rio Ngumoha, Florian Wirtz and Cody Gakpo behind Alexander Isak. Nothing about that is confirmed — it is a friendly, and managers rotate — but it tells you where Iraola's thinking is.

The centre-back pairing is the headline. Ibrahima Konaté left on a free transfer to Real Madrid this summer, and losing a first-choice defender for nothing is the kind of thing that reshapes a season. That departure, plus Leoni's knee and Gomez's muscle, is why a largely untested young defender may line up next to Van Dijk in Iraola's first Anfield showcase.

What Como actually bring

Do not treat them as filler. Cesc Fàbregas has built a genuinely watchable side, and the visitors have familiar faces for a British audience — Trevoh Chalobah, formerly of Chelsea, could make a first start, while summer additions Yan Couto and Mattia Liberali continue to build fitness. Sports Illustrated predicted a 2-2 draw, which says plenty about how the two defences are rated right now.

How to watch, and what to look for

The evening match at Anfield is being carried on the club's own streaming service, All Red Video, so there is no terrestrial or main-subscription broadcast to hunt for. The morning fixture is the closed one — expect clips and a scoreline rather than full coverage, so do not spend your Sunday looking for a stream that was never going to exist.

Watch the first 20 minutes of the evening game more than the scoreline. Whether Jacquet looks comfortable alongside Van Dijk, whether Isak and Wirtz find each other, and whether Liverpool can go a half without conceding will tell you far more about the coming months than a friendly result will. If the same defensive lapses show up a third time, that is the story worth carrying into the season — and the thing to keep an eye on when the points start counting.