Liverpool will meet Sevilla next month in their final pre-season friendly, but the Spanish side have seen their summer plans take a hit after their trip to Japan was cancelled.
On August 11, Arne Slot will oversee his side in front of an Anfield crowd for the first time, and La Liga’s Sevilla are the opposition just shy of a week before the league opener.
And while the Reds are on course to head into that friendly after three games in the United States, Sevilla have had their plans thrown into disarray due to a relegation battle in Japan.
While it may be pre-season for European teams, the J.League are heading into the crunch part of their season, with 14 games remaining to crown a champion and confirm relegation.
Sevilla had agreed to play a friendlies against Consadole Sapporo (July 30) and Sagan Tosu (Aug 2), but both are in the bottom three in the league and fighting for their safety.
ElDesmarque report that the tour’s organisers were asked to “cancel the friendlies” by at least one of the two Japanese clubs as they are not “capable of diverting attention” during this juncture of the season.
The Spanish side have “offered to travel to Japan and play the friendlies at another time,” but as AS adds, this will represent an “economic setback” as the trip was to be a “profitable” one for Sevilla.
They must now scramble to find alternative opposition for Garcia Pimienta ahead of his first season in charge, adding to their games against Sporting, Fabinho‘s Al-Ittihad and Liverpool.
J.League clubs do have almost two weeks off after the weekend, but quite why they would schedule friendlies ahead of the run-in is quite staggering – and it is no wonder this ‘tour’ was called off.
While Sevilla figure out their next steps, Liverpool are just days away from travelling to the United States to face Real Betis, Arsenal and Man United before returning for their Anfield clash.
Slot has already welcomed back three of his summer internationals, but you can get an idea of when the rest will follow here.