There were more pre-season friendlies over the weekend, with Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Burnley, Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers among the teams in action.
In our Scout Notes article, we take a look at the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from these matches.
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LIVERPOOL 2-4 AC MILAN
- Goals: Szoboszlai, Gakpo
- Assists: Ngumoha, Konate
Liverpool succumbed to a surprising 4-2 defeat at the hands of AC Milan in Singapore, with Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.5m) and Cody Gakpo (£7.5m) on target for the Reds.
The Premier League champions fielded two separate teams for each half, with Alisson (£5.5m), Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m), Andrew Robertson (£6.0m), Mohamed Salah (£14.5m) and new signing Florian Wirtz (£8.5m) in the first line-up.
Liverpool are clearly undercooked and succumbed early on when Rafael Leao punished van Dijk after the Dutchman showed the winger space on his left foot to crash a shot past Alisson.
Gravenberch was used as a utility centre-back in the first half, while Kostas Tsimikas (£5.0m) partnered Konate in two unsuccessful experiments.
Szoboszlai’s equaliser was a thing of beauty, however, a curling right-footed shot into the top corner, and Wirtz showed some superb moments of skill, playing in the false-nine role.
Wirtz looked neat and tidy, but the worry about whether he takes anything away from Salah’s potency will linger until we have more match evidence to go on, as for the second friendly running the Egyptian failed to score.
Liverpool first half XI: Alisson, Stephenson, Gravenberch, van Dijk, Robertson, Morton (Nyoni 32), Szoboszlai, Salah, Elliott, Ngumoha, Wirtz
Liverpool second half XI: Mamardashvili, Bradley, Konate, Tsimikas, Kerkez, Jones, Gravenberch (Morton 62), Frimpong, Doak, Nyoni, Gakpo
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 2-2 WYCOMBE WANDERERS
LUTON TOWN 0-0 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
- Goals: Sarr x2
- Assists: Odobert, Thompson
Tottenham squeezed in two pre-season friendlies in one day before heading off on their tour of the Far East, the first of which was a 2-2 draw with Wycombe.
Pape Matar Sarr (£5.0m) scored both Spurs goals in the behind-closed-doors friendly, in which several academy graduates took part.
Wilson Odobert (£5.5m) played particularly well on the right flank, creating havoc with his pace, while Tottenham came close through a Pedro Porro (£5.5m) free-kick.
There were more first-team players on show for the trip to Kenilworth Road, but the closest Spurs came to a breakthrough was when Mohammed Kudus’ (£6.5m) 10th-minute shot was cleared off the line.
Guglielmo Vicario (£5.0m) had little to do, but his half-time replacement, Antonin Kinsky (£4.0m), had to produce an excellent save to keep out Nahki Wells’ volley eight minutes into the second half.
There were bright spells from new signing Kudus, but the draw was a fair outcome.
The main takeaways were injury-related, however, with Dominic Solanke (£7.5m) and Destiny Udogie (£4.5m) both left out of the Luton match as a precaution.
“Dom has a minor ankle issue, nothing we’re worried about, just a precaution for today.
“Destiny felt something in the warm up, so, again, just a precaution, we just want to be on top of that.” – Thomas Frank
Tottenham Hotspur XI v Wycombe Wanderers: Austin, Porro (Ashcroft 75), Romero (Cassanova 75), Vuskovic (Arganese-McDermott 75), Davies (Akhamrich 75), Abbott (Tyrese Hall 75), Bergvall (Olusesi 75), Sarr (Williams-Barnett 75), Odobert (Thompson 61), Richarlison (Irow 61), Son (Lehane 75)
Tottenham Hotspur XI v Luton Town: Vicario (Kinsky 46), Spence (Kyerematen 77), Danso (Byfield 64), van de Ven (Rowswell 77), Donley, Bissouma (Olusesi 77), Gray (Russell-Denny 77), Moore (Devine 77), Kudus (Yang 77), Johnson (Lankshear 77), Tel (Scarlett 77)
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 0-2 BURNLEY
SHREWSBURY TOWN 2-2 BURNLEY
- Goals: McDermott, Westley
- Assists: Koleosho, Tweedy
- Goals: Edwards x2 (pen)
- Assists: Worrall
Scott Parker split his side into two for these matches, with the other half of the squad taking on Shrewsbury Town at the same time in Shropshire.
Goals from Tommy McDermott and Joe Westley earned Burnley an away win at the Acuu Stadium.
Meanwhile, new signing Marcus Edwards (£5.0m) struck twice as a heavily-rotated Burnley XI shared a draw with Shrewsbury Town.
Jaydon Banel twice went close for Burnley before Edwards equalised on 52 minutes with a well-taken free-kick, and the former Spurs man then forced a save from Harrison before converting a penalty after Joe Worrall (£4.0m) had been brought down.
Notably, Josh Brownhill and Jay Rodriguez took all of Burnley’s penalties in 2024/25 but have now left the club.
Elsewhere, Axel Tuanzebe (£4.0m) picked up an injury which will need monitoring.
Burnley XI v Huddersfield Town: Hladky (Weiß 45), Walker (McDermott 61), Hartman (Brierley 70), Ekdal (Leuluai 70), Esteve (Pye 70), Anthony (Pouani 61), Bruun Larsen (Balogun 61), Laurent (Bauress 70), Hannibal (Pimlott 70), Koleosho (Tweedy 70), Foster (Westley 70)
Burnley XI v Shrewsbury Town: Green, Worrall (Ashton 82), Delcroix (Campbell 82), Tuanzebe (Sambo 23, Blackie 88), Sonne (Williams 82), Pires (Adekoya 82), Ramsey (Tresor 65), Cullen (McCoy 73), Banel (McMahon-Brown 82), Edwards (Adewumi 82), Barnes (Tchaouna 46)
HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN 3-0 SUNDERLAND
Sunderland issued a public apology for their defeat in Scotland after they were resoundingly beaten by Hearts.
Regis Le Bris made three changes from the side that faced Sporting, with Dan Neil (£5.0m), Simon Moore (£4.0m) and Niall Huggins (£4.0m) coming in for Habib Diarra (£5.5m), Blondy Nna Noukeu (£4.0m) and Harrison Jones (£4.5m).
Enzo Le Fée (£5.0m) showed glimpses of his quality and remains a set-piece threat, his free-kick whistling narrowly wide in the 53rd minute, but with three weeks to go before the new season, this was not an encouraging display.
“I think, for the first time this pre-season, we faced a team with high intensity, direct play, man for man – and we struggled. Maybe we are a bit tired, but it’s not an excuse. So, a strong reminder: sometimes you need a punch in your face to say, oh, the season has restarted – and that was the case.” – Regis Le Bris
Sunderland XI: Moore, Hume (Tutierov 70), Ballard (J Jones 70), Seelt (Lavery 70), Huggins (H Jones 70), Sadiki (Diarra 31), Neil (Sadiki 63), Le Fee (Browne 70), Adingra (Roberts 70), Talbi (Aleksic 70), Mayenda (Abdullahi 70)
STOKE CITY 1-1 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
- Goals: Hwang
Hwang Hee-chan (£6.0m) was on target as Wolves earned a hard-fought draw at Stoke.
The South Korean stepped up to take his side’s penalty only to see it saved by Viktor Johansson, but the forward was first to the rebound to spare his blushes and level the match.
Stoke had taken the lead through Bae Junho’s first-half effort, with Fer Lopez (£5.5m) coming close at the other end for Wolves. But the visitors improved in the second half following the introductions of Hugo Bueno (£4.5m), fresh from his loan spell at Feyenoord, and Rodrigo Gomes (£4.5m).
Goncalo Guedes (£5.5m) fired over and Hwang had a chance cleared off the line, but Wolves had to settle for parity.
Elsewhere, there was more involvement from budget defender Ki-Jana Hoever (£4.0m), who has been on various loan spells over the last three years. Last week, he provided an assist and this weekend he played as both a right-back and right centre-back.
“I feel like I’m a wing back. I think he [Pereira] sees that as well. But he spoke to me in half-time and asked if I could play as a third centre-back and obviously the way we play, I think it’s also something I can do, and it’s no problem for me.” – Ki-Jana Hoever
Wolverhampton Wanderers XI: Bentley (Johnstone 45), Hoever (Lima 81), Doherty (R Gomes 60), Agbadou, Toti, Bellegarde (Guedes 60), Andre (H Bueno 45), J Gomes, Munetsi, Lopez (Hwang 60), Strand Larsen (Kalajdzic 60)
