Diogo Jota's sons to be Liverpool mascots vs Wolves as Arne Slot sends emotional message
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Liverpool Echo IconSportFootballLiverpool FCThe family of Diogo Jota will be at Anfield when Liverpool host Wolves on SaturdayArne Slot says he hopes the depth of feeling from everyone connected to Liverpool Football Club towards Diogo Jota is a source of comfort to his family ahead of what is expected to be an emotional Anfield afternoon on Saturday.The Reds will meet Wolverhampton Wanderers, Jota's other former Premier League club, for what is the first fixture between the two since the popular Portuguese was involved in a fatal car accident with his brother, Andre Silva, in early July.Jota was travelling in northern Spain en route back to Merseyside to begin pre-season training in the early hours of Thursday, July 3 when a tyre blew out on his car. The striker's wife, Rute, will be in attendance on the day with Jota's sons, Dinis and Duarte, set to be mascots.Jota, who was 28 when he passed away, joined Liverpool from Wolves in September 2020 and won the Premier League, FA Cup and two League Cups during his five years as a Reds player.
And speaking his pre-match programme notes ahead of the visit from the rock-bottom Wolves, Slot dedicates a portion of his column to the No.20."That ability to be united has been one of our most important qualities throughout a year which has brought us some of our highest highs and our lowest lows," Slot says."Reflecting on everything that has happened over the last 12 months ignites a rollercoaster of emotions but it is normal at this time of year to look back to everything that has happened."Doing so leads me to think especially of the family of Diogo Jota on what will be their first Christmas without him. It is not my place to tell them where they should look for comfort – if that is even possible – but I can only hope that the feeling of love and affection that Diogo still generates brings them some solace."The sense of loss will be particularly strong on Saturday, of course, as it will be the first time that Diogo's two English teams will meet since his tragic passing."Like us, Wolves were clearly very affected by the loss of such a special player and person so my thoughts continue to be with them also."Slot adds: "I would like to welcome Rob Edwards, his players and staff as well as the supporters and directors of Wolves to Anfield for the game."They arrive fighting for their future but regardless of their current position in the Premier League table we will expect the kind of test that we faced against them twice last season when we managed to come out on top in two very difficult games."This is just the way the Premier League is, which makes it so, so important to be on the right side of the small margins.
Lately, we have been able to do that more often than had been the case in previous weeks so we need this to continue."Ideally, we will also start to put ourselves in a position in which we can even give ourselves a bit more comfort but as I said earlier in these notes, there is a lot of work to do if we want to reach this stage."Liverpool took the decision to retire Jota’s No.20 shirt after his death as a mark of respect for the forward, who played an important part in helping Slot's side win the Premier League title last season.