Darwin Nunez inherited Luis Suarez’s No. 9 shirt and shone in his first sport for Marcelo Bielsa, as Uruguay beat Chile 3-1 in a World Cup qualifier.
Nunez headed into this worldwide break within the information that, with Suarez and Edinson Cavani each neglected, he was the principle man for Bielsa.
The legendary Uruguay supervisor, appointed in Might following spells with Athletic Membership, Marseille, Lille and Leeds at membership stage, sought one-on-one classes with the Liverpool striker previous to their assembly.
“Some issues he thinks may be higher,” Nunez defined final month of their Zoom calls. “He corrects me.”
Friday night time introduced the 24-year-old’s debut for his new nationwide staff supervisor, and it resulted in an impressive show towards Chile.
Per FotMob, Nunez solely touched the ball 35 occasions in 73 minutes, finishing simply eight of his 15 tried passes, which might counsel a peripheral night time.
However he was central to every part going ahead for Uruguay earlier than his substitution halfway by means of the second half, together with two assists.
He fired six photographs on objective, twice denied by Chile goalkeeper Brayan Cortes, was profitable with all three of his tried dribbles – a match-high tally – and gained 5 of his six floor duels.
His assists had been each spectacular: the primary a fast one-two in a good space which noticed Nicolas de la Cruz fireplace house; his second seeing him beat his marker to the byline and in the reduction of for De la Cruz’s brace.
It got here on an in any other case largely quiet night time for Liverpool’s internationals, with Alisson unused as Brazil beat Bolivia 5-1 of their World Cup qualifier.
Diogo Jota additionally spent the night time on the bench as Portugal scraped a 1-0 win over Slovakia, although Andy Robertson captained Scotland to a 3-0 victory over Cyprus.
Spain U21s’ 6-0 thrashing of Malta noticed Stefan Bajetic play his first minutes in six months, coming off the bench at centre-back.
Jayden Danns performed 20 minutes for England U21s of their 4-0 loss to Japan at Tournoi Worldwide, whereas Lewis Koumas wasn’t concerned as Wales U19s misplaced 1-0 to Finland on the Jari Litmanen Enviornment.
