During a minute’s silence, fans held up a giant mosaic with the initials of Jota and Silva, who was also a footballer, and their shirt numbers in the Portuguese flag.
“The main emotion should be how emotive the tribute for Diogo was,” said Liverpool boss Arne Slot. “It was all so impressive and powerful.”
Despite romping to the title with four games to spare last season, Liverpool have undergone a major transformation in the transfer market, spending close to £300 million ($407 million).
Ekitike, Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong made their first competitive starts for the Reds.
More could be yet to come with Liverpool linked with a British transfer record move for Newcastle’s Alexander Isak and interested in Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi.
The visitors were fortunate not to be reduced to 10 men less than 15 minutes in when Marcos Senesi clearly directed the ball out of Ekitike’s path with his hand when the French striker had a clear run at goal, but VAR surprisingly did not intervene.