A young Liverpool U18s side gave a great account of themselves as they narrowly lost 1-0 to Inter Milan in the quarter-finals of the Al-Kass Cup in Qatar on Friday.
A spectacular diving header from Francesco Bigotto from a right-wing cross gave the Italian outfit the only goal of the game in the 64th minute.
The young Reds had beaten Aspire Qatar 2-0 and then drawn 0-0 with Esperance to reach the quarter-final stage, and they played well during the 90 minutes.
Jordon Ibe was given the captain's armband by Steve Cooper and had a fine game on the right-wing.
Goalkeeper Ryan Fulton made two fantastic saves from point blank range in the opening 22 minutes while Connor Randall and Jerome Sinclair both had good chances at the other end.
Sinclair went close for Cooper's side in the second half when he cut in from the left flank and curled an effort just wide.
Lloyd Jones also went close with a header from a free-kick and Liverpool piled the pressure on the Inter defence but just couldn't find the equalizer they deserved.
Cooper told Liverpoolfc.com: "I am so disappointed for the lads because they gave it everything and deserved a lot more.
"Considering how young a team we had out they did our club proud against a strong Inter Milan side.
"Our performance was very encouraging for the future."
On handing Ibe the captain's armband, Cooper added: "He is a very talented young player and we wanted to give him some extra responsibility and he handled it well."
The Reds have two games left now in the tournament. They face Real Madrid next on Sunday who are managed by former Red Fernando Morientes.
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