Núñez wonder goal steers Reds through the storm
Bournemouth 1 Liverpool 2, 1st November 2023.
BOURNEMOUTH 1 (Kluivert 64)
LIVERPOOL 2 (Gakpo 31, Núñez 70)
With Storm Ciaran making landfall here in the UK after sweeping through Europe, both teams should be admired and applauded for providing such an entertaining spectacle given the atrocious and horrid conditions. Driving sideways rain swept from one end of Bournemouth’s “Vitality Stadium” to the other making play incredibly difficult for the team playing “into the wind”, a pleasingly quaint expression from my youthful playing days, with first Bournemouth then the visiting Reds in the second half battling to even get a simple long kick or pass forward through the wind and rain. As the Rodgers and Hammerstein song doth proclaim “Walk On” and through the wind and rain the Reds did just that, and though Bournemouth’s progress in the Carabao League Cup may be “tossed and blown”, the Reds advance to meet West Ham United in a pre Christmas Quarter-Final tie at Anfield.
Despite playing into the teeth of the wind, Bournemouth arguably produced the more cohesive and attacking football in the game’s opening half an hour and whilst the Reds (in their utterly dreadful away kit of green and white quartered shirts that bring back far too many bad memories of their 1996 FA Cup Final capitulation to Manchester United) had a lot of the ball, the home team “Cherries” carved out great goal scoring chances only to be denied by Reds goalkeeper and arguable “Man of the Match” Caoimhin Kelleher. The Irishman produced smart saves to deny first Ryan Christie after a wonderful team move that swept from defence into attack, then left back Milos Kerkez when the young Hungarian should have scored before an even better save later in the first half denied the always impressive Antoine Semenyo.
Between these saves the Reds finally gained a foothold in the game and from their fifth corner of the first half Harvey Elliott’s stinging drive was well saved by Bournemouth goalkeeper Ionuț Radu and Cody Gakpo bundled home a nerve settling opening goal. The home team’s equaliser on 64 minutes owed much to the swirling wind from a corner as well as the predatory instincts of Justin Kluivert at the far post, but the goal was a deserved one for a home team again arguably on top and threatening this equalising goal. Antoine Semenyo should have equalised mere minutes before as he screwed horribly wide when it was more difficult doing so than to actually score before substitute Marcus Tavernier forced another brilliant save from Caoimhin Kelleher. The goal for Bournemouth was coming, and with 26 minutes remaining of this cup tie, the teams were level at 1–1.
Parity lasted for 6 minutes before the chaos magic that surrounds Darwin Núñez struck so gloriously once more. First mis-controlling a simple cross field pass that brought sarcastic cheers of derision from the home crowd, the Uruguayan then brought the ball under control before cutting inside and unleashing a wonder strike that curled deliciously past a stranded Ionuț Radu in the Bournemouth goal and perfectly into the top corner of his net.
A wonder strike it was and through the wind and rain, the Reds were in the Quarter-Finals of the Carabao League Cup.
Vamos Darwin!
My self-published book on Liverpool Football Club
So a much changed Reds in that awful away kit still only have that horribly unjust VAR blemish against Tottenham Hotspur against their seasonal record hence far. Together with progress here in the more simply known League Cup they are skating easily into the knock-out stages of the UEFA Europa League and with two winnable games on the horizon against Luton Town and Brentford, they should be in prime position in the Premier League come 25th November, and their showdown in east Manchester with defending Champions, Manchester City.
20 year old Jarell Quansah made a mockery of the difficult conditions with yet another assured display. Kostas Tsimikas continues to ably deputise for the injured Andy Robertson. Wataru Endō looks a shrewd, albeit temporary, cog in an ever changing midfield, with Harvey Elliott looking more and more the gem of a player we always hoped he would be, and the chaos magic surrounding Darwin Núñez producing goal after goal in game after game.
The “evolution season” is taking shape and with more than a little patience, the rewards could be spectacular indeed.
A final word from The Boss
“It’s a top, top, top cup game. It’s all about winning, it’s all about getting through. There were good things today, I don’t have to speak about the circumstances because you saw it yourselves. It was really difficult for both teams. First half we could have scored more goals, we didn’t. Second half obviously we realised it would have been a good idea to have scored more goals in the first half because the wind changed the game again in the second half. We scored our second goal, a wonderful goal and then we fought extremely hard, we had good moments but it is all about attitude in these moments”.
“It was a difficult game. Bournemouth did really well — they had their moments. In life, in football, from time to time you need luck and tonight, for sure, in one or two moments Bournemouth could have finished the situations a little bit better but it’s an inch on the foot and not more. Then Darwin shows his class and put the game pretty much to bed for us. It’s an unbelievable goal”.
Thanks for reading. I pen my thoughts on each and every Liverpool game so please feel free to take a peek at my extensive archives here for games old and new, enlightening and never Everton blue. Go on, take a peek at that self-published book on the Mighty Reds linked in the middle of my article too! It’s the best book on Liverpool Football Club you’re never going to read!
Is the Carabao League similar to the Premier League?