Liverpool’s Brazilian stars Roberto Firmino and Alisson Becker are to be given a well-deserved three-week break after this Sunday’s Copa America final.
Firmino and Alisson have both been in excellent form for the Selecao as they fought their way to the final of this summer’s tournament.
Tuesday night, they beat Lionel Messi’s Argentina 2-0 in the semi-final with Firmino bagging a goal and Alisson keeping his 9th consecutive clean sheet for club and country. As a result, Alisson has already won the Copa America Golden Glove award for five clean sheets from five games, even though he still has the final left to play.
Firmino has scored two goals and provided three assists in his five Copa America appearances so far.
Now, Liverpool’s Samba stars have to overcome Peru in Sunday’s final in Rio de Janeiro to lift the trophy. Peru beat Chile 2-0 in Wednesday night’s other semi-final.
After such a long campaign, Jurgen Klopp is expected to grant the duo three weeks off, meaning they would not be due back at Melwood until the end of July – as reported in the Liverpool Echo.
Firmino and Alisson would miss Liverpool’s pre-season runouts against Tranmere Rovers and Bradford City. They would also be absent for The Reds’ tour of America and the friendlies with Borussia Dortmund, Sporting Lisbon and Sevilla.
Klopp is bringing his Liverpool squad to France for a training camp in late July so it’s likely that Firmino and Alisson would join up with the group at this stage.
Liverpool will feature in the curtain-raiser to the 2019/20 season, the Community Shield, against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City on August 4th at Wembley.
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