13 July 2011 - There's A "Reds" Joke In There Somewhere

On 13 July 2011, Liverpool played in China for the first time, beating Guangdong Sunray Cave in a friendly, 4-3.

The match kicked off Liverpool's preseason Asian tour, which also included stops in Malaysia and South Korea. They had previously visited the region in 2009, when they played exhibitions in Thailand and Singapore. Their opponent in China, Guangdong, was founded in 2007 and had just been promoted from the league's third tier to the second.

Playing at the Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou, the visitors got off to a strong start with early goals from Christian Poulsen (19') and David N'gog (21'), but Guangdong striker Ricardo Steer halved the margin just before the break.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish swapped his entire side out for the second half and got goals from Conor Coady (72') and new signing Andy Carroll (89') to push their lead to 4-1. But Guangdong scored twice in the 90th minute to close the final gap to a surprisingly narrow 4-3.