BRISBANE — New recruit James Milner scored the winner as Liverpool recovered from an early goal down to beat Australia's Brisbane Roar 2-1 in a pre-season game here Friday. England midfielder Milner, who joined Liverpool from Premier League rival Manchester City on a free transfer last month, finished well surrounded by Roar defenders to claim his first goal for his new club in the 75th minute. The Roar, in its first match under new coach and former Socceroo striker John Aloisi, looked on par with a rusty Liverpool outfit before the English giant got the upper hand. Milner, capped 53 times by his country, slid the ball through the legs of Roar captain Jade North before beating goalkeeper Jamie Young with a deflected shot. Young made a string of strong saves and had plenty of reason to perform in his reunion with Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers, who recruited him as a teenager into Reading's academy. Unperturbed by the huge support for Liverpool, the Roar took a surprise lead after 17 minutes when Dimi Petratos stepped past Martin Skrtel and then unleashed from near the penalty spot to beat Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. But Brisbane's lead didn't last long and 11 minutes later it was all square, with an Adam Lallana equalizer. Lallana threw off the advances of Roar defender Jack Hingert, and then found the top corner with a perfectly-weighted curling shot. Liverpool's far greater depth showed as they closed out the match in style in the second half. Casilla joins Real Madrid Espanyol has agreed a deal for goalkeeper Kiko Casilla to join Real Madrid, the Catalan club said Friday. The 28-year-old Spain international arrives following the departure of Bernabeu legend Iker Casillas to Porto and will provide competition for Keylor Navas and the inexperienced Fernando Pacheco in the first team. The deal is reported to involve a payment of around six million euros ($6.54 million) by Real, which retained a 50 percent ownership of Casilla — a product of its youth academy — after he moved to Espanyol in 2007. Casilla has made one appearance for Spain, in November last year when he came on as a second-half substitute in a 1-0 defeat to world champion Germany, but was not included in coach Vicente del Bosque's latest squad. Blatter to attend Cup draw FIFA President Sepp Blatter will attend the 2018 World Cup's preliminary draw in St Petersburg on July 25, Russia's Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko was quoted as saying Thursday. “Sepp will be coming. He confirmed this to me yesterday. He will also meet with the President of Russia,” Mutko said in an interview with the newspaper Sport Express. Blatter, 79, said on June 2 he would step down from his post after US and Swiss authorities widened their investigations into bribery and corruption at world soccer's governing body. — Agencies
