Masters misery in Thailand
Liverpool's hopes of winning the inaugural Standard Chartered EPL Masters Football Tournament in Thailand were dashed on Sunday after they failed to win a single game.
Thousands of Liverpool supporters packed into the Impact Arena in the Thai capital to cheer on an LFC Masters side managed by John Barnes, but despite scoring arguably the best goals of the tournament through Julian Dicks and Robbie Fowler, the Reds crashed to three straight defeats.
Having won the EPL Masters Football tournament in Malaysia back in April, the Thai Reds were hoping to see a repeat performance of that success here in Bangkok, but it wasn't to be.
Liverpool lost their opening game against the Thailand All-Stars 4-2. Trailing 3-0 to a first-half hat-trick from local hero Zico, two second-half goals from Phil Babb and Mark Walters gave the Reds a glimmer of hope before a late Thailand strike finished the tie off.
It was a similar story in the second game against a Manchester United side captained by Viv Anderson and featuring Andy Cole and David May. Trailing 4-1 at the interval, Fowler scored a second-half hat-trick and had a perfectly good goal disallowed before United eventually ran out 5-4 winners.
With qualification for the final out of reach, Liverpool's last remaining game against the more youthful EPL All-Stars ended in a 3-2 defeat, with Fowler once again getting on the scoresheet with two trademark clinical finishes.
The tournament was eventually won by the Thai All-Stars, with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against their EPL counterparts after the scores were level at 4-4 during normal time.
"Any time you pull on a Liverpool shirt you want to win but it didn't work out for us today," said former defender Phil Babb, who scored Liverpool's first goal of the tournament.
"Robbie scored some great goals though and he's an even bigger idol over here than he is back in Liverpool, so hopefully the fans weren't too disappointed..
"The support from the fans was amazing and it was great to meet so many of them before the tournament when we did a signing session. Hopefully we'll be back next time and we'll give them something more to cheer about."
The John Barnes Liverpool Player of the Tournament: Julian Dicks
The Liverpoolfc.tv Liverpool Player of the Tournament: Robbie Fowler