Empire of the Kop
·6 November 2024
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Yahoo sportsEmpire of the Kop
·6 November 2024
Even when he’s not actually on the pitch for Liverpool, Darwin Nunez often finds a way to draw people’s attention!
The Uruguayan was left out of the starting XI for the 4-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night and came on for Cody Gakpo with just 10 minutes of normal time remaining, by which stage the Reds effectively had the result in the bag.
The man who he replaced scored our second goal at Anfield in the 63rd minute with a thumping header from Mo Salah’s cross. It was initially flagged offside by the assistant referee before a subsequent VAR review showed that the Dutchman wasn’t ahead of the last defender, with the on-field decision rightly overturned.
It seemed that Nunez didn’t even need to wait for any replays or verification from the officials. As soon as the linesman raised his flag, the 25-year-old marched straight over to him with a finger-wagging gesture as if to say that the man on the touchline got it wrong, which it turned out he did.
Image via @lfcnin on X
The Uruguay striker will have been disappointed to see a natural winger in Luis Diaz start instead of him at centre-forward last night, although the Colombian’s hat-trick certainly vindicated that decision from Slot.
At least Nunez can claim to have a telling involvement in his brief outing against Leverkusen, with his shot in stoppage time blocked by an opponent before falling nicely for the Reds’ number 7 to complete his treble.
While the ex-Benfica marksman still has plenty to scope to improve his scoring output (just two so far this season), it’s moments such as his gesture to the assistant referee which continue to endear him to Liverpool supporters, many of whom will have been howling with laughter when they saw it.
Some might even argue that the 25-year-old has a better eye for offside calls than most of the individuals tasked with that particular job as their profession!
You can view Nunez’s gesture to the fourth official below, via @lfcnin on X: