Liverpool announced on its official website on Thursday that the club will visit Hong Kong and Japan in July this year for pre-season friendly matches on its Asian tour.

According to Liverpool's official statement, the club was invited by the Hong Kong SAR government and its sponsors Kodansha and Japan Airlines to hold pre-season friendly matches there, and wanted to take the opportunity to interact closely with Asian fans in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Japan, South Korea and other places.

The club will first fly to Hong Kong on July 26 and compete with its Italian Serie A sister club AC Milan for the annual Standard Chartered Trophy friendly match at the Kai Tak Stadium.

After that, the Reds will fly to Japan on July 30 and play a friendly match with Manchester City's J1 League sister club Yokohama F. Marinos at the Yokohama Nissan Stadium.

Ticket purchase details will be announced on Liverpool's official website later. Interested fans can leave their personal information and email address on the club's official website to get priority ticket purchase details for these friendly matches.

As always, all credit card holders of Standard Chartered Bank, the club's shirt sponsor, and members of Liverpool's official fan clubs in the UK, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Asia will receive priority ticket purchase rights before the ticket sales officially start.

In addition, in conjunction with the Malaysian Spanish Food Festival, Liverpool's former Spanish legendary international winger Luis García will return to the local area again. On April 12 (Saturday), he will serve as the food festival ambassador at the AEON Supermarket in One Utama Mall in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia, and will also be the pre-match pundit for Liverpool's match against West Ham United this weekend.

García will also hold a personal fan meeting the next day, April 13 (Sunday), and fans who hold membership of Liverpool's official Malaysian fan club KL KOPITES or All Reds may also have the opportunity to have a meal with Garcia.

It is worth mentioning that this is the first time Liverpool has visited Hong Kong for a friendly match after 8 years, and this is the first time the team has visited Japan.

The Reds last flew to Hong Kong for two friendly matches from July 19 to 22 of the 2017 Premier League Asia Cup. In the end, Liverpool defeated Leicester City 2-1 in the final of the cup with goals from Mohamed Salah and Philippe Coutinho 20 minutes apart in the first half. They even held a launch ceremony for their third jersey for the 2017/18 season on the spot.