Darwin Nunez
Darwin Nunez

Liverpool avenged their 4-1 drubbing against Napoli with a 2-0 win over the Italians at Anfield with goals from Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez. While the win might have uplifted the spirits of the Reds who had lost their previous outing at home, against Leeds United in the Premier League, they still had to settle in for a second place finish in the their group. But they still had a lot of positives to take away as despite their domestic struggles, Liverpool have continued to surge upwards in the continental competition.

A game which was rapidly moving towards a 0-0 draw, had enough drama in the final 20 minutes as the Reds turned it on its head scoring twice. Mohamed Salah, who is having a dismal league campaign netting just 4 goals in 12 games, is firing on all the cylinders in the Champions as he scored his seventh goal in sixth game to put his side into the lead in the 85th minute. Nunez, who came-off the bench then doubled the lead late into the 8th minute of the added time, however thanking fellow teammate Virgil van Dijk for the goal

Darwin Nunez
Darwin Nunez helped Liverpool clinch a win over Napoli by scoring after coming off the bench. Credits: Twitter

Darwin Nunez has the jokes after securing the win for Liverpool

The reverse fixture between Liverpool and Napoli was a fiercely contested one as the Reds were aiming for a big victory in order to win their group. While a thumping like Napoli did to them was not possible as the Naples side too gave them a tough fight, Liverpool just did enough to end the group stage on a high. More so, after Luciano Spalletti’s men even opened the scoring in the 53rd minute through Leo Skiri Ostigard. The goal sent the home fans into a panic attack as they were on course for back-to-back defeats at Anfield.

However, the VAR came to their rescue as it ruled out the Napoli center-back’s goal keeping the score at par on 0-0. The deadlock was finally broken as Salah scrambled in a corner from Kostas Tsimikas, after Virgil van Dijk had his header saved by the Napoli ‘keeper, only to miscue it in the path of the Egyptian. The Dutch center-back was influential in the opener as his header proved to be too strong to be held tight by the Napoli shot-stopper.

The game was then handed a lengthy injury time of 7 minutes, as Darwin Nunez, who had come on in the game in the 73rd minute finally scored in an open goal. The striker had missed an open net against Ajax in the last game after being set up by Roberto Firmino. It was Van Dijk once again who recreated the instance from the first goal as his powerful header off a Tsimikas corner this time fell in front of Darwin Nunez.

The forward made no mistake in blasting the ball in the back of the net, which after a VAR check was finally allowed. Nunez appeared to poke fun at Van Dijk post game, who twice came close to get his name on the score-sheet only for his teammates to reap the benefits. Darwin Nunez on Twitter hilariously thanked the center-back for his ‘selfless’ service to him and Salah who added to their tallies thanks to Van Dijk.

Nonetheless, Darwin Nunez will be happy to have scored coming off the bench as he is slowly recovering from his inconsistent start to the season. Making a £85 million move from Benfica to Liverpool, becoming the Reds’ record signing, pressure was on the 23-year-old’s shoulders to emulate his exploits from last season. He is now coming to the party, having scored 5 goals in last 7 games in all competitions.