Portugal star dedicates goal to Diogo Jota after scoring against Liverpool in heart-warming pre-season moment

AC Milan star Rafael Leao paid tribute to Diogo Jota after scoring against Liverpool in a pre-season friendly. The Portugal star celebrated his goal by displaying '20' with his fingers, the jersey number Jota wore for the Reds.

Jota passed away earlier this month after an accident, while he was on his way to England to link up with the Liverpool squad ahead of pre-season. He was traveling in a car with his brother, Andre Silva, who also lost his life.

Both AC Milan and Liverpool paid tributes to Jota and Silva ahead of the game. The fans also paid their tribute in the 20th minute with a round of applause in honor of Jota.

Leao was a teammate of Jota in both the senior Portugal team and the U21 side. They played 13 matches together, including the UEFA Nations League final against Spain earlier in June.

Leao scored in the 10th minute of the match after former Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic put him through. The AC Milan star made no mistake, as he ran the length of the Liverpool half on his own and scored past Alisson despite late pressure from Virgil van Dijk.

Dominik Szoboszlai managed to pull the Reds back on level terms, and the two teams went into the half-time break with a 1-1 scoreline. The Rossoneri came back stronger in the second half with Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Noah Okafor scoring to make it 3-1. Cody Gakpo pulled one back for the Reds late in the game, but Okafor completed his brace to seal a 4-2 win for Milan against the Premier League champions.

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Liverpool announce plans with tributes for Diogo Jota

Liverpool fans flooded the gates of Anfield with flowers and scarves soon after the news of Diogo Jota's death. The club kept the tributes in place for over two weeks, but have now started the process of removing them from the premises.

The Reds have announced that the club will safely store the tributes, while the floral remains will be composted and used in flower beds across the club's facilities. The statement read (via Sky Sports):

“The club is now able to provide details on how it will create more permanent tributes moving forward. The thousands of physical tributes outside Anfield have been gradually removed over the course of the last week and carefully separated and safely stored. Floral tributes will then be composted and used in flower beds across all club sites, including Anfield, the AXA Training Centre and AXA Melwood Training Centre." “The remaining artefacts will be recycled by a specialist company and used to help create a permanent memorial sculpture that will become a future focal point of remembrance at Anfield. In the meantime, a temporary area of reflection has been created at Anfield so people can continue to pay their respects.”

The Reds have also retired the no.20 jersey at the club across all levels in honor of Diogo Jota.

Edited by Nived Zenith