Tag: Darwin Núñez

Real Madrid produced some Champions League Madness to overwhelm Liverpool

Liverpool’s dream start became a true nightmare

It’s not great to be struggling for form when you have to play Real Madrid.

Just ask Liverpool, who fell 5-2 at Anfield after some true Champions League Madness™ saw Real come from 2-0 down to emerge victorious in their last-16 first leg clash.

Liverpool were two goals to the good after just 14 minutes. It looked like they could be using this game as a platform to turn around an increasingly disappointing season. It was a thrilling, authoritative start for the Reds, the kind of soccer they haven’t been able to produce consistently in the 2022-23 season.

It’s just that they had to play the rest of the game.

Stung into action, Real Madrid rode a combination of Vinícius Junior’s brilliance, Liverpool mistakes, misfortune, and some ruthless counter-attacking play in the second half to produce five unanswered goals and take total control ahead of the second leg on March 15.

It all started so well for Liverpool. With Anfield in full voice, Mohamed Salah slipped a clever pass in behind to find Darwin Núñez, who supplied a stunning backheel finish to open the scoring in the fourth minute.

Liverpool had created a lead with ingenuity, and expanded it with luck. Thibaut Courtois would have certainly preferred a better back-pass from Dani Carvajal, but still had plenty of time to get the ball away without much trouble.

Instead of an easy clearance, the Belgium No. 1 produced a disaster. His chest trap was casual enough to let Salah pressure him, and Courtois seemed to short-circuit. The ball bounced off of his knee as he tried to turn, setting Salah up to simply flick the ball past him.

If only the game could have just ended there for Liverpool. Unfortunately they had over 75 minutes left, and Real Madrid is still Real Madrid.

Vini Jr., who scored the winner in last year’s Champions League final between these teams, somehow conjured up a goal after he and Benzema combined despite being surrounded by seven red shirts.

When you’re in the kind of form Vini Jr. is in, a wall of defenders simply isn’t a problem. The Brazil attacker seemed like he was going to carry on dribbling only to snap a lovely, angled shot past Alisson and into the bottom corner.

With the game now well and fully careening out of control, it was only fair that Liverpool — having scored and conceded a golazo — cough up a howler to match Courtois’ error.

Alisson obliged, firing a low pass attempt right into Vini Jr. as the Brazilian applied only token pressure on a back-pass. The way Liverpool’s season is going, everyone in the building knew what was coming: a looping rebound that floated over Alisson, sucking the air out of Anfield and equalizing the score.

Halftime came, and whatever Jurgen Klopp did to try and get his side going again, it went out the window within seconds. Éder Militão took advantage of some absurdly hesitant set piece defending, trotting away from his markers to nod home a Luka Modrić free kick.

Barely 100 seconds into the second half, a game that had started so well for the Reds was now one they trailed.

Liverpool’s poor defensive work was one thing, but they were also cursed on the day, and those factors combined as Real made it 4-2. The Reds seemed to defuse the threat as Rodrygo’s cross was tipped away by Stefan Bajčetić, but no one could beat Carvajal to the resulting loose ball.

Rodrygo got the chance to try again, and this time he and Benzema casually carved a stagnant Liverpool open. The result? A classic “you make your own luck” goal, as Benzema’s shot glanced off of Joe Gomez’s calf, wrong-footing Alisson.

Liverpool was now having a full-fledged nightmare, and the last thing you want to do against this Real Madrid team is cough up a cheap turnover and open yourself to a counter.

Fabinho unfortunately did just that, losing the ball to Modrić with Liverpool having eight players in the attack. From there Real Madrid made it look simple: Modrić to Rodrygo to Benzema, who drew Alisson out only to cut the ball away from him and slide it into an empty net.

Los Merengues‘ demolition job was complete.

 

Liverpool laments defending on Militão goal

“Super start. We had everything we wanted,” Jurgen Klopp told beIN Sports after the match, before turning his attention to Real’s third goal.

“I’m really not sure if it’s a foul at all,” said Klopp, “but even when it’s not a foul and they get a free kick, we have to defend the free kick better. In that space, it’s not allowed that [Militão]’s alone. Absolutely not possible.”

“We made too many mistakes. Real Madrid punished us every time tonight,” lamented Jordan Henderson to BT Sport. “It’s difficult to come here and speak. Yes, they have a lot of quality. When you’re not 100% defending they punish you… The second goal obviously is a mistake. The third we’ll be disappointed with. That’s when the game went away from us.”

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Rangers’ USMNT pair gets good view as Mo Salah scores record-breaking Champions League hat trick

It’s probably for the best that Sands and Tillman didn’t play in this one

Maybe Rangers should have put James Sands and Malik Tillman in?

Liverpool had a very rare sort of comeback win in the Champions League Wednesday, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 7-1 victory thanks in no small part to Mohamed Salah scoring a hat trick in all of six minutes and 12 seconds.

Rangers scored their first group stage goal in the 17th minute to take the lead at Ibrox, and though Roberto Firmino replied seven minutes later, the Scottish club — with both Sands and Tillman on the bench — got into halftime with the scores level.

Unfortunately for Rangers, the referees and Liverpool decided to play the second half rather than simply letting everyone go home early. Firmino struck again in the 55th minute, followed by a goal from Darwin Núñez, as Liverpool looked to be cruising to a win.

However, things were about to get worse for Rangers. Salah hadn’t even entered the game at that point, only entering the fray to replace Núñez after the Uruguayan had finished celebrating his goal.

With the clock reading 74:43, Salah took his first step towards a new Champions League record, stabbing a left-footed shot past Allan McGregor from an acute angle to make it 4-1.

The Egyptian star then added Liverpool’s fifth in the 80th minute, with a sneaky shot that used the scrambling Rangers defense as a screen. 96 seconds later, he had his hat trick, characteristically curling home from the right side of the box as the clock ticked over to 80:55.

Salah broke Bafétimbi Gomis’ 11-year-old record, as the French striker had scored an eight-minute hat trick for Lyon against Dinamo Zagreb back in 2011.

For Rangers, who ended up not putting Sands or Tillman into the match at all, it’s been a rough return to the Champions League. They are one of two teams to have lost all four of their matches, and Viktoria Plzen’s -13 goal difference in Group C is slightly better than the -15 mark Rangers has in Group A.

Watch Salah make Champions League history

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Joachim Andersen got death threats for the crime of being headbutted in the face

Andersen posted a sampling of the abuse he received from fans. It was not pretty

Joachim Andersen has shared some of the vile abuse he received online, including death threats, after he was headbutted by Liverpool forward Darwin Núñez in Monday night’s game.

Andersen tangled with the Liverpool striker for 55 minutes before the Uruguayan lost his cool and headbutted the Danish defender square in the face.

After the game, which ended in a 1-1 draw, Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp said that Andersen “provoked” Núñez, but also admitted the striker was wrong to react the way he did.

The day after the game, Andersen posted on his Instagram stories, saying he got between 300-400 “of these messages last night. I understand you support a team but have some respect and stop act tough online.”

Andersen then posted a sampling of the abuse he received from fans in his inbox. It was not pretty.

The BBC reported that Andersen reported the messages to the police via Crystal Palace’s police liaison officers.

Núñez, meanwhile, posted an apology on Twitter on Tuesday.

“I’m aware of the bad attitude I had,” he said. “I’m here to learn from my mistakes and make sure they don’t happen again.”

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Darwin Núñez just went and lost his mind

The striker’s Anfield debut was memorable for all the wrong reasons

Darwin Núñez had a memorable home debut at Anfield, just not in the way he would have hoped.

The Liverpool striker damaged his side’s bid for three points against Crystal Palace by getting sent off for a vicious headbutt on Joachim Andersen.

This wasn’t one of those headbutts where two players come together and one recoils back in agony after a slight touch. Núñez, when slightly provoked by Andersen, got his money’s worth when he drove his forehead into the Dane’s chin and drew a deserved a 57th-minute red card.

Liverpool, down a goal at the time, battled back admirably and drew level after a superb individual effort by Luis Díaz. But despite pressuring Palace late with a man disadvantage, Liverpool could only draw 1-1.

It was the second straight draw to start the season for the Reds, who are already four points behind Man City. Considering the kind of early-season form City has shown, that already appears to be a big deficit.

Watch Núñez’s headbutt

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Liverpool, Man City treated the Community Shield like a real game

The Community Shield seemed to matter this time

The FA Community Shield functions as a curtain raiser for English soccer, but with Liverpool and Manchester City likely set to battle for every trophy once again, the Premier League giants treated what is ostensibly a friendly like a final.

Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola fielded extremely strong lineups, and kept them out there for the first hour before making subs like…£85m addition Darwin Núñez. Fans in the crowd roared, both teams lobbied furiously for VAR decisions that went their way, smoke bombs were tossed onto the pitch. If the teams were supposed to just be getting an easy run-out in as part of their preseason preparations, no one told them.

Trent Alexander-Arnold’s beautifully composed 20-yard finish gave the Reds the lead, but new addition Julián Álvarez got Man City level on a goal that was initially called off only for VAR, after a spell, to overturn that choice.

VAR was involved again on the winner, as Núñez’s header struck Rúben Dias. This wait was even longer, but in the end Mohamed Salah was granted a spot kick after Dias was judged to have handled the ball, and the Egyptian fired home the winner.

Even with Liverpool facing another friendly Sunday—they’ll host Strasbourg at Anfield—they were playing at their familiar high tempo, and Núñez improvised a header in stoppage time to get Liverpool their first trophy of the year.

That said, there was still a preseason sort of moment mixed in. Even deeper into stoppage time, Erling Haaland somehow managed to fire into the stands when standing in front of an open net, capping off a frustrating day at the office for Man City’s biggest summer addition.

Still, the fact was that it felt like it mattered, rather than simply being one more game in the mess of preseason fixtures. Teams generally brush off a Community Shield loss, especially when their opponent isn’t supposed to contend for much in the coming season (see: Man City losing to Leicester City last season).

But when you’re Liverpool, coming off of a season that kept ending with second-place finishes, it makes sense to throw down the gauntlet to Man City and the rest of the league. And if you’re City, of course you want to maintain your place as England’s best team.

Sometimes this kind of ceremonial season kick-off kind of game can just sort of drift by. They give a trophy out, and no one spends time thinking about it again for the rest of the year.

This time, between these two teams? It feels like the first chapter of a saga.

See the goals that won Liverpool the Community Shield

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Darwin Núñez came on at halftime and scored four for Liverpool

The Uruguayan needed just 45 minutes to score four against the Bundesliga outfit

It seems like Darwin Núñez might just do OK at Liverpool after all.

The Uruguayan, signed for a club-record fee from Benfica this summer, came on at halftime in a friendly against RB Leipzig on Thursday and proceeded to score four goals.

With Liverpool up 1-0 at the break, Núñez was introduced and within three minutes he found the back of the net with a penalty for his first Liverpool goal.

Núñez went on to score another three as Liverpool routed the Germans in a 5-0 win.

The striker had been targeted by some Liverpool fans after a slow start to the preseason, but he’s now found the perfect response to truly get his Reds career up and running.

Watch Núñez’s first three goals vs Leipzig

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Liverpool confirms club-record Darwin Núñez transfer from Benfica

The Uruguay international will bolster an already fearsome Liverpool attack

Liverpool has confirmed the signing of Uruguayan forward Darwin Núñez from Benfica.

Núñez has signed a six-year contract and arrives for an club-record fee of £64 million ($79m) up front, plus another potential £21m ($26m) in add-ons.

The 22-year-old put himself on the radar of several big European clubs by scoring 48 goals from 85 appearances in all competitions over two seasons with Benfica.

“It’s a pleasure to be here in Liverpool and I’m very happy to be a part of this great club,” Núñez, who will wear the No. 27 shirt, told Liverpool’s official website.

“I’ve played against Liverpool and I’ve seen them in lots of games in the Champions League, and it’s my style of play. There are some great players here and I think it’s going to suit my style of play here.

“As I say, I’ve watched quite a lot and it’s a very big club and I hope I can give everything that I’ve got in order to help the team.”

Liverpool’s remade attack

The arrival of Núñez continues Liverpool’s process of revitalizing its attack after the trio of Sadio Mané, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino were central for several years.

Mané, Salah and Firmino’s contracts are all set to expire at the end of next season, with their futures up in the air. Mané in particular has been strongly linked with a move to Bayern Munich this summer.

Liverpool has been bolstering its front line in the past two years by adding Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz and now Núñez, as Jurgen Klopp’s side prepares for the eventual departures of some of its biggest stars in recent history.

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