Darwin Nunez’s fortunate first goal in Liverpool’s 3-1 victory over Sheffield United on Thursday was hailed by manager Jurgen Klopp as one of his “favourite goals ever” as the team returned to the top of the Premier League.
In the first half, Nunez, a striker for Uruguay, closed down goalkeeper Ivo Gbric’s clearance and saw it cross the line after hitting his backside. It was his 18th goal of the season.
Although it was the most peculiar of the striker’s 33 goals for the Reds since he joined from Benfica in the summer of 2022, Klopp was happy with how his No. 9 got things started and Conor Bradley’s own goal tied the score in the second half.
After Cody Gakpo secured the victory in stoppage time, Alexis Mac Allister scored an incredible goal to make it 2-1. Klopp expressed his satisfaction with the hard-fought outcome, which moved them back above Manchester City and Arsenal with just eight games remaining.
“As a manager you have to take it as you get it,” Klopp stated. “I would rather be up 5-0 right now, but that is difficult. We tried a lot to press the opposition and scored one of my all-time favorite goals to lead 1-0. It is not often that you come that close, but he did. I believe that a striker occasionally needs things like that. That’s fantastic.
“These types of games are challenging; it might be challenging to know their set pieces within 20 seconds, when we could have had a humorous 1-0 behind. A moment later, when no one was around to finish it off at the back post, they also had a great chance.
“We were in control of the game, but there are other ways to handle things, and the method we used today was not the best one. I didn’t anticipate being presented with opportunity after opportunity. We followed the instructions to accelerate, speed up, underlap, and overlap, and it helped that Robbo (Andy Robertson) was continuously moving down the line.
“That is the issue. Although it was challenging to get into the rhythm of the game, we ought to have improved after 60 or so. To turn things around, we needed Macca’s incredible goal. The third goal was exactly what it should have been from the beginning. This kind of moment—Robbo sprinting forward, gorgeous cross, incredible header. Although we had previously won the game, everything worked out in the end.”
