Leeds United came from two goals down to beat Liverpool 4-2 in a pre-season friendly at Soldier Field, Chicago, on 2 August 2026, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin scoring twice in front of 49,128 fans The Guardian.

Liverpool, the reigning Premier League champions, looked comfortable at half-time. Luke Chambers headed in from a corner — Dominik Szoboszlai delivering, Milos Kerkez flicking the ball across the six-yard box for the finish. Florian Wirtz added the second, sliding in after Jeremie Frimpong hooked the ball back across goal from a Trey Nyoni cross The Guardian.

Then both managers changed things. Liverpool's head coach Andoni Iraola — appointed this summer — withdrew Wirtz, Alexander Isak, Nyoni and Rio Ngumoha at the break, bringing on Ryan Gravenberch, Lewis Koumas, Federico Chiesa and Curtis Jones. Leeds boss Daniel Farke made four substitutions of his own, introducing Calvert-Lewin, new signing Harry Wilson, Sean Longstaff and Brenden Aaronson The Guardian.

The comeback began with a mistake. Kerkez tried a back-heel deep in his own half, Ethan Ampadu pounced on the loose ball and released Aaronson, who beat Giorgi Mamardashvili — Liverpool's new goalkeeper — to halve the deficit. Calvert-Lewin equalised from close range after Joe Rodon flicked on a long throw from Ampadu. Then Calvert-Lewin struck again, and Longstaff added a fourth to complete the turnaround The Guardian.

It was Liverpool's first defeat of pre-season under Iraola, though the result carries an obvious asterisk: Wirtz and Isak only returned to training on Monday after missing the midweek win over Wrexham in New York. Isak had played all four of Sweden's games at the World Cup, so both are still building fitness The Guardian.

For Leeds, the match capped off their 2026 pre-season USA tour, which had included a 1-0 win over Sunderland in New Jersey thanks to an early goal from German forward Lukas Nmecha Leeds United. The tour gave Farke a chance to integrate new faces — Wilson among them — ahead of the new campaign.

Leeds also have recent history against Liverpool on their side. They went unbeaten against them across the 2025/26 season, including a 0-0 draw at Anfield on New Year's Day that ended Liverpool's four-game winning streak Reuters. That result came when Leeds were sitting 16th in the table, scraping for points; the contrast with this confident, free-scoring performance in Chicago is striking.

Pre-season results are never the full story, and neither manager will read too much into a friendly. But for Leeds fans, watching their team score four against the champions — in a stadium built for American football, on the other side of the Atlantic — will feel like a decent omen. And the night before, just down the road, more than 32,000 had watched Robert Lewandowski mark his Chicago Fire home debut with both goals in a 2-1 win over Charlotte FC The Guardian. Football is finding its feet in Chicago, and on this evidence, the city is buying in.