Borussia Dortmund claimed a second Premier League scalp in the space of less than 48 hours this evening courtesy of a 3-1 victory over Liverpool in North Carolina.
Virgil van Dijk scored the only goal of an otherwise uneventful first half at the Bank of America Stadium, but a raft of half-time changes increased the quality levels in Charlotte.
Christian Pulisic was one of the players to be introduced, and he went on to inspire his side to victory with two goals - one from the penalty spot and the second at the end of a sweeping counter-attack late on - before creating a third in stoppage time when his shot was parried into the path of Jacob Bruun Larsen, who made no mistake with the rebound.
Find out how all of the action unfolded courtesy of Sports Mole's live minute-by-minute updates below.
Both teams are unbeaten in pre-season so far as they gear up for the 2018-19 campaign, when Jurgen Klopp - who faces his former club tonight - and new Dortmund boss Lucien Favre will be hopeful of an improved showing on the domestic stage.
We will have a close look at both clubs a little later, but first let's check out the team news...
Well, it is always likely to be a mixed bag when it comes to pre-season matches, particularly with so many players enjoying extended breaks after the World Cup, and it is no surprise that so many star names are missing for both teams tonight.
The most notable absentees for Liverpool are Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, who are both back in training and with the squad out in the USA having been eliminated from the World Cup in the group stages. However, it was confirmed earlier today that neither would feature in this match as they look to build themselves back up to full fitness.
Marko Grujic is in the same boat as those two, but all three will be expected to feature at some point during this International Champions Cup tour.
Chief among them is Virgil van Dijk - the world's most expensive defender - as he returns after missing out on a start against Blackburn last time out. Joel Matip joins him at the heart of the defence, and the fit-again centre-back has a good chance to put his name forward for a regular starting spot in pre-season, with Lovren expected to miss the start of the campaign having helped Croatia to the World Cup final.
Indeed, there are a number of fringe players who will want to impress tonight, and the pressure is really on Loris Karius following the world-record signing of Alisson. We all know about his mistakes in the Champions League final, and he made another one in a pre-season clash with Tranmere earlier this month to increase the speculation over his place in the side.
It certainly looks as though he will be playing second fiddle to Alisson this season.
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Further forward there is another chance for Lazar Markovic - who scored against Blackburn last time out - and Divock Origi, who spent last season out on loan and may have limited time to show Klopp what he can do again before Firmino returns from his extended break.
Gotze was omitted from Germany's ill-fated World Cup squad but scored the only goal of the game in the 1-0 win over Manchester City in the early hours of yesterday morning, while Reus - who scored and assisted in the last meeting between these two sides - has rejoined the squad having been part of that German party in Russia.
The highly-rated 19-year-old has been linked with a move to Liverpool in recent days - and manager Jurgen Klopp has done little to quell those rumours - but he does not feature from the start for Dortmund this evening.
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New boss Lucien Favre has further bolstered his defensive options with the £25m signing of Abdou Diallo, who starts tonight, with Marius Wolf completes the trio of new signings for the Bundesliga outfit.
Only two players in this Dortmund side also started against Manchester City in the first match of their American tour, with Hitz and Zagadou the men to keep their places.
The Reds will play three games in the United States, but this is the only one which comes against a foreign team. Indeed, Liverpool's next two matches in the ICC both come against fellow top-four contenders from Manchester, with City first up in New Jersey on Thursday before facing bitter rivals United in Michigan next Saturday.
After taking on Manchester City and Manchester United Liverpool will then face an Italian double-header, taking on Serie A runners-up Napoli in Dublin and then Torino at Anfield in their final pre-season contest.
Things could not have got off to a much better start with Liverpool thrashing Chester 7-0 in their opening game, but since then they have been a little less convincing, including a narrow 3-2 triumph over Tranmere Rovers when they raced into a 3-0 lead but then allowed their Merseyside neighbours back into the game with a poor second-half performance.
Once again it took Liverpool a while to get going, though, and it wasn't until the second-half XI came on that they started to pull away from Blackburn, with Markovic and Sturridge getting the goals in a 2-0 victory at Ewood Park.
The Reds will host West Ham United in their opening game of the season and have been handed a relatively kind start on paper, facing Crystal Palace, Brighton and Leicester before their first top-six battle against Tottenham Hotspur in their fifth game of the campaign.
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The Reds have, of course, come close to ending that drought on a couple of occasions since then, but their business this summer - coupled with some of the football they were playing last season - has led many to believe that they could be genuine title challengers this time around.
The biggest hurdle to overcome is obviously Manchester City, though, and if the reigning champions can match the level of their performances from last season then it is hard to see anyone living with them once again.
Add to that the fact that they have strengthened in areas they needed too - most notably in goal with the world-record signing of Alisson, but also in midfield with Fabinho, Keita and Shaqiri - and it looks like the most rounded squad Liverpool have had for a long time.
During that time Klopp led Dortmund to back-to-back Bundesliga titles - against the might of Bayern Munich - in addition to a DFB-Pokal crown and the final o the Champions League, although his side were beaten by Bayern on that occasion.
He takes over a Dortmund team no longer considered the main threat to Bayern Munich's dominance, having only finished fourth in the Bundesliga last season, scraping into the Champions League knockout rounds by virtue of goal difference ahead of Bayer Leverkusen.
Hoffenheim and Dortmund were the fortunate two to get into the Champions League places on goal difference, but they were still both 29 points adrift of champions Bayern Munich and eight away from second-placed Schalke 04, so if they have ambitions to get back to the top of German football this season then they will need to bridge a sizeable gap.
This is Dortmund's second game of the International Champions Cup, and their first came less than 48 hours ago when they edged past Manchester City 1-0 in Chicago courtesy of Mario Gotze's first-half penalty. Their third and final game of the tour comes against Benfica in Pennsylvania on Thursday.
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Favre's side then drew 1-1 with Los Angeles FC courtesy of another late strike - this time from Max Philipp - before winning their two most recent games against Austria Vienna and a youthful Man City side.
Similarly to Liverpool, Dortmund are ensuring that they do play some high-class opposition before the new campaign as they look to improve on their performances last season. I have already mentioned their fourth-placed Bundesliga finish, but they were also knocked out in the group stages of the Champions League - having been drawn in a group alongside Spurs and Real Madrid - the last 16 of the Europa League and the last 16 of the DFB-Pokal.
The German outfit have also lost a few notable players too - and a few of them to the Premier League, with Sokratis joining Arsenal, Yarmolenko moving to West Ham and Durm going to Huddersfield. Add to that the departure of Gonzalo Castro to Stuttgart and retirement of Weidenfeller and there has been a fairly sizeable change at Dortmund this summer - not to mention the new manager too!
Pre-season games are notoriously difficult to call, and we will likely see changes en masse at half time tonight, which makes it even harder to pick a winner. It really is a stab in the dark, but we're going to side with Liverpool to pick up a narrow victory.
SPORTS MOLE SAYS: Liverpool 2-1 Borussia Dortmund
That was a notable triumph, though, with the Germans running out 2-1 victors in the Cup Winners' Cup final, when Roger Hunt got Liverpool's only goal.
Dortmund scored twice in the opening 10 minutes that night and looked certain to progress when they led 3-1 after an hour, but Liverpool launched a stirring comeback which was eventually capped off by Dejan Lovren's last-gasp headed winner.
They also faced off in the first leg of that Europa League quarter-final, of course, when Mats Hummels cancelled out Divock Origi's opener at the Westfalenstadion.
LIVERPOOL STARTING XI: Karius; Clyne, Van Dijk, Matip, Robertson; Fabinho, Lallana, Camacho; Markovic, Jones, Origi
BORUSSIA DORTMUND STARTING XI: Hitz; Zagadou, Diallo, Sancho, Sahin, Toljan, Wolf, Dahoud, Philipp, Boadu, Dieckmann
Philipp immediately looks to go for goal with Karius way out of position, but he doesn't connect properly with his effort and it bobbles safely wide.
It is really poor defending from Dortmund, who allow Liverpool to take a short corner and then don't close Robertson in time before he can get his cross away. His delivery is right onto the forehead of Van Dijk, who is completely unmarked to rise and plant his header past the keeper.
He was never missing from there!
It hasn't been a classic, in truth, with only one shot on target, and that provide the only goal of the game so far. Both sides have been playing at far below their best - as was expected from a pre-season clash - but the game is still there for either to win it.
Dortmund's defending from non-existent, allowing Liverpool to take a short corner to Robertson and then allowing Robertson to swing his cross into the box. Van Dijk was then left free from around six yards out to put his header home with minimum fuss.
The German came a long way out of his area to clear the ball, but he only succeeding in giving it straight to Philipp, whose effort bobbled wide of the target when he probably should have done better considering the goal was gaping.
I expect a lot more changes to come at half time now!
Liverpool keep the pressure on, though, and Milner eventually lines up an effort which curls narrowly over the crossbar from 30 yards out. Not a bad effort at all from the on-pitch skipper!
It looks certain that he will score, with the keeper out of the equation, but Solanke's header drops just past the far post.
Woodburn steals possession in a dangerous area and that allows Sturridge to lay the ball through for Ojo, who has time, space and only the keeper to beat. His finish is really poor as he hits it straight down the middle, but Hitz has guessed and only manages to get his foot to the ball, sending it bouncing up and against the crossbar.
Keita is following in, but the ball is taken away from his head by a fine last-ditch clearance.
The award of the spot kick is a little controversial; Pulisic showed good footwork to dance his way into the box, but Klavan could not have gone anywhere else and Pulisic ran into the Liverpool defender, rather than Klavan actually making a challenge.
Nevertheless, the referee points at the penalty spot and Pulisic dusts himself off to level things up.
Schmelzer led the charge with a powerful run down the left flank before squaring the ball inside for Pulisic, who picked out the bottom corner to leave Karius helpless. A brace for the American-born attacker!
The winger cuts inside and gets his shot off, and Karius can only palm the ball into the path of Larsen, who makes no mistake with the rebound. Another mistake from the Liverpool keeper.
Virgil van Dijk had given the Reds the lead in an otherwise uneventful first half, but Pulisic levelled things up with a controversial penalty shortly after the hour mark. The rumoured Liverpool target then scored a second in the 89th minute to give his side the lead, before forcing a save from Karius in stoppage time which gifted Larsen a simple finish from the rebound.
Thank you very much for joining Sports Mole for tonight's match as Borussia Dortmund come from behind to beat Liverpool in Charlotte. I will leave you with our match report, and be sure to check back in for plenty more pre-season action over the coming weeks!
From me, though, it is goodbye for now!
