It was a night of nearly’s for Nunez.
Darwin Nunez made Premier League history as Liverpool cruised to victory against Chelsea on Wednesday night.
Liverpool hammered Mauricio Pochettino’s side 4-1 at Anfield as Diogo Jota, Conor Bradley, Dominik Szoboszlai and Luis Diaz were all on the scoresheet.
Nunez was his usual lively self and grabbed his 11th assist of the season when he laid the ball on a plate for Diaz to tap home from close range and recently became the first Premier League player to reach double figures in goals and assists for the season.
The Uruguay international could’ve been on the scoresheet himself however he missed a penalty, smashing his effort against the post after the Reds were awarded a spot kick for Benoit Badashile’s foul on Jota.
He won't want to watch that back 😬
Darwin Nunez has the opportunity to give Liverpool a 3-0 lead before half-time… but hits the woodwork 💥 pic.twitter.com/O0PQOEqI0p
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 31, 2024
To make matters worse, the forward’s penalty miss added to a unwanted record as he became the first player to hit the woodwork on four separate occasions in a single match since OptaJoe started collating the records back in the 2003/04 season.
He’s also hit the woodwork nine times in total this season and while it’s a stat that many would be embarrassed by, manager Jurgen Klopp will be happy enough to see he is in the right place in the right time.
Youngster impresses once again in man-of-the-match performance
While Nunez was breaking records a new hero was born at Anfield as Conor Bradley delivered another exceptional performance.
Bradley found himself drafted into the first team of late due to the Reds’ lack of options in the full back department following injuries to Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas.
The 20-year-old was rightly awarded the man-of-the-match award after his rock-solid defensive display and looked just as good going forward, scoring a goal and registering two assists.
His effort was Bradley’s first goal for Liverpool but it didn’t look like it as he found himself in acres of space before drilling the ball into the bottom right corner of the net.
Conor Bradley is already a Liverpool hero pic.twitter.com/LM0z47Z3F8
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) January 31, 2024
In the second half the full-back then provided a sensational assist for Liverpool’s third as his teasing cross met the head of Szoboszlai, who put the game out of sight.
There may also be question marks about how Klopp can integrate Bradley into the starting XI once Alexander-Arnold returns and could even finally provide the Reds boss with the chance to stick Alexander-Arnold in the midfield position that so many have wanted to see him in and keep Bradley at right back.
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