On July 23, Liverpool FC and AS Roma played an exhibition match in front of a sold- out crowd at Fenway Park. With both teams returning to the UEFA Champions League in the fall, both managers took the opportunity to field a mixture of seasoned veterans and inexperienced rookies.

It was a physical, tight, tense game of few chances that looked to be heading for a penalty shoot-out, before a second half stoppage time header from Marco Borriello took a wicked deflection off of Liverpool substitute Daniel Agger and nestled in the back of the net beyond helpless goalkeeper Brad Jones.

Prior to Borriello’s winner, both teams spurned excellent chances to take the lead either side of half time. First, Roma captain Francesco Totti skewed a shot wide after an energetic run and cut back by Ashley Cole, a new left back recruit after signing on a free transfer from Chelsea FC. Then 10 minutes into the second half, Liverpool’s Phillippe Coutinho set up Rickie Lambert with a perfectly weighted through ball, but Lambert’s fine left-footed strike was well saved by Roma goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski.
For Liverpool, there was no captain Steven Gerrard, Daniel Sturridge, or new signings Lazar Markovic, and Adam Lallana on display, as all had only just returned to full training a few days prior. But Liverpool’s Bostonian fan base was given a chance to see new signing Rickie Lambert, who has taken on the club’s legendary number 9 jersey, and Emre Can, a new midfield recruit from Bayern Leverkusen in Germany.

Perhaps the biggest cheer of the night came from the Roma fans who were ecstatic to see club captain Francesco Totti in the team as the starting line ups were called out. Still missing from action after World Cup duty and injury, respectively, were star midfielders Daniele De Rossi and Kevin Strootman, but Roma still had plenty of talent on display.

Attacking midfielder Adem Ljajic and new signing Juan Manuel Iturbe, an exciting Argentinian forward who joined the club a few weeks prior to the match, both started alongside Totti and impressed the crowd with some nifty footwork and clever passing.
In his post-match conference, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said he was pleased with his side’s performance, despite the result. Particularly impressive was the performance of Phillippe Coutinho, who showed Brazil exactly what they had been missing by omitting him from their 23-man World Cup squad in a virtuoso display at Fenway.

“Coutinho is the brain in our team,” said Rodgers. “Coutinho is the continuity player. He might not score many goals, but he’s a wonderful reference for the team. He’s the one that gets the team ticking. He’s a fantastic talent for such a young player.”

Roma manager Rudi Garcia was also pleased with his side’s performance, after seeing them snatch a winning goal in the dying seconds. He was especially pleased by the performances of some of his younger players who came on toward the end of the second half. “Both teams played with young players,” said Garcia through a translator. “I am quite happy with the development we had.”

Both Roma and Liverpool have a number of other games left on their tour of the United States before heading back to begin a grueling domestic and European campaign in August, but Liverpool’s Rodgers gave every indication that this is not the last time fans would see those famous red shirts run out onto the Fenway grass.

“It’s the second time in the last couple of years (we’ve played at Fenway),” he said. “It was a great atmosphere. The support was great. I think it was for both – fantastic. For a preseason game, it was a very, very good game.”