After friendlies against Tranmere and Bradford, it’s time for Liverpool’s pre-season to step up a notch.

The European champions have travelled to America where they will face Sevilla and Sporting.

But first up was a clash against Jurgen Klopp’s former side, Borussia Dortmund.

It was an opportunity for many of the players that helped Liverpool lift the Champions League trophy in Madrid on June 1 to make their first appearance of the campaign.

There were half-an-hour appearances from Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson, Jordan Henderson and Georginio Wijnaldum.

But they couldn’t prevent a 3-2 defeat at the Notre Dame Stadium.

Like Liverpool, Dortmund agonisingly missed out on their domestic title last season as they finished two points behind Bayern Munich.

But having signed Thorgan Hazard, Nico Schulz, Julian Brandt this summer, as well as permanently snapping up Paco Alcacer and resigning Mats Hummels, Dortmund will be looking to go one better this time around.

And it took just three minutes for Alcacer to put Dortmund ahead.

But Harry Wilson equalised before half-time. The 22-year-old has impressed in the Championship for Hull and Derby in the previous two campaigns and will be hoping to force his way into Liverpool’s first-team this season.

Dortmund made nine changes before half-time and raced into a 3-1 lead thanks to goals from Thomas Delaney and Jacob Bruun Larsen.

It was time for Liverpool to make 10 changes and they pulled a goal back thanks to Rhian Brewster’s penalty - his fifth goal in pre-season.

Klopp admitted that he wasn’t ‘over the moon’ about Liverpool’s performance but knows that it’s still only pre-season.

"There were a lot of good things, some things which I didn’t like, that’s normal in pre-season," he said.

"I decide what we do in training and I know how much we did yesterday in already pretty warm weather conditions. I still don’t like what I see in the game very often in the pre-season but I know the reason for it.

"I’m not over the moon when I think about our performance but I know there’s a lot to come and it’s all OK."