Darwin Nunez appeared sheepish to accept his winning goal in Liverpool’s Champions League win after seemingly stealing it from teammate Mohamed Salah on the goal line.
The Uruguayan’s goal, just his second of the season, was the difference as Arne Slot’s side made it three wins from three on the continent with a 1-0 victory over RB Leipzig.
The winning goal arose in rather amusing circumstances, with the Liverpool striker nicking what seemed to be a certain goal for teammate Salah.
Despite the Egyptian’s header looping towards the far post and looking likely to go in, Nunez poked out his right boot to ensure the ball found its way into the back of the net.
Fans on social media were quick to suggest that Nunez had stolen Salah’s goal and clips afterwards may suggest that the 25-year-old felt the same way.
Congratulated by Reds skipper Virgil van Dijk after the goal, Nunez was quick to pass on the credit, laughing as he pointed at Salah and said: ‘No it’s Mo.’
Van Dijk, though, was keen to give Nunez his flower, slapping his teammate’s chest and adding: ‘We need more.’
Quizzed about the nature of the goal at full-time, Liverpool boss Slot said he did not care one bit about whose name went down on the scoresheet but was pleased to see Nunez’s hard graft rewarded on the night.
‘I’m always happy when we score a goal and I’m not that much into it who scores it,’ the Dutchman said.
‘It is always good to see all of our players scoring goals and I think in the lead-up to the goal, Cody [Gakpo] and Mo [Salah] were just as important in the goal as Darwin was.
‘What I liked from Darwin was that he was also strong, comfortable on the ball, kept the ball a lot, fighting if he had to defend, so he made it a really difficult game for the two centre-backs of Leipzig.
‘And then for him scoring, I think that is always nice for a striker to be on the scoresheet.’
Liverpool are back in action on Sunday when they travel to the Emirates to take on Arsenal in the Premier League.
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