Fabio Borini hurt as Roma edge Liverpool in Fenway Park friendly

Turning baseball's home of the Boston Red Sox into a football pitch on Wednesday, AS Roma beat Liverpool 1-0 on a Marco Borrilleo goal in the 90th minute.

Liverpool's Jordan Ibe controls the ball in front of Fenway Park's 'Green Monster' wall during Wednesday's friendly against Roma. CJ Gunther / EPA / July 23, 2014

Marco Borrilleo scored in the 90th minute to give Roma a 1-0 victory over Liverpool in an exhibition game Wednesday night at Boston’s Fenway Park as striker Fabio Borini with a much more worrisome right shoulder injury.

The 23-year-old Italian striker, a former Roma standout before coming to Liverpool, fell on an early tackle and came up holding his shoulder.

Liverpool said during the match that Borini’s shoulder was not dislocated but further examination was needed in a tough setback during the opening minutes of the English Premier League side’s pre-season US tour.

The only goal of the match came in the dying seconds of regular time when Roma’s Marco Borriello bent his right leg and redirected a corner kick off Danish Liverpool defender Daniel Agger and into the net.

Borriello, a 32-year-old Italian striker, has been on loan to Juventus, Genoa and West Ham United over the past three seasons.

For the second time in three years, Fenway, the home of the Boston Red Sox, was transformed into the home of Liverpool, who are owned by Fenway Sports Group. John Henry, owner of the Red Sox, also is the controlling partner of Fenway Sports Group.

Roma beat Liverpool 2-1 at Fenway two years ago, and are owned by Boston Celtics minority owner Jim Pallotta.

Roma goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski made a diving save near the post on Rickie Lambert’s kick from just outside the box in the 57th minute. They seemed to have the territorial edge in the first half and Liverpool a slight edge in the second in a match that had just a handful of shots on goal. There was limited contact until Liverpool’s Adam Phillips was given a yellow card late in the match.

Liverpool sat a number of their star players, but the mostly red-clad crowd didn’t seem to mind.

Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard played his first match since announcing Monday he was retiring from international play for England after serving as English captain at the World Cup last month.

Roma have signed England’s Ashley Cole, who said he had US offers but “I’m not ready to relax on a beach yet.”

Neither team had a shot on goal in the first half. Roma had the best chance when Francesco Totti redirected Ashley Cole’s pass just wide from the centre of the box.

Fans entering the park on a steamy night could walk through gates – on either end of Yawkey Way – with a sign above that read: “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”. It had the flavour of a match at Anfield.

Bagpipers played outside the 102-year old park before the match and the team’s official souvenir store, usually stocked with white home jerseys with the names and numbers on the backs that read: “Ortiz 34,” “Lester 31” or “Pedroia 15” were out of sight in a section that was transformed into a gift shop for Liverpool items. There, the walls were filled with red jerseys of “Gerrard 8,” “Coutinho 10” and “Sturridge 15.” The Red Sox apparel section was closed off for the night.

The fabled Green Monster had three huge banners hanging from it, the one in the middle was highlighted by Liverpool’s logo and read in large letters “Tour 2014.”

Liverpool entered from the home – first-base – dugout.

One goal was set up in front of the bullpens in right field and the other just beyond the usual spot of the third-base bag along the foul line in shallow left.

It was the first of four scheduled matches in the United States for Liverpool, who travel to Chicago, then the home of Boston’s rivals, Yankee Stadium, and Charlotte.

The main course for the media dining at the park was English staples: fish and chips, bangers and mashed with mushy peas and cauliflower and cheese.

Henry said to NBC at half-time that this year’s Uefa Champions League “is a huge focus for us and we brought in a lot of depth to compete in both arenas.”

Liverpool also parted ways with 27-year-old Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez after his infamous World Cup bite of Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini, the latest in a serious of controversial moves for the Premier League Golden Boot winner.

Suarez will resume his career with Barcelona once his ban from the sport ends in October.

“It was time for Luis and time for the club to make a break,” Henry said. “He brought so much to the club but we brought a lot to Luis. I think you will still see a very explosive Liverpool offence.”

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