Ryan Gravenberch produced a brilliant performance as Liverpool earned a thumping 5-1 win against Toulouse in the Europa League on Thursday night (26 October) at Anfield.
The 21-year-old – who moved to Liverpool in the summer transfer window from Bayern Munich for a fee of £34m – scored his second goal in this competition after a horrible miss from Darwin Nunez. The Daily Mirror (27 October, page 66) hailed him as “magic”, and has given him 8/10 while rating the overall performance.
Gravenberch is yet to fully settle down at Anfield, and he is nowhere near his best. But he has already shown glimpses of his vast potential. Considering that he is only 21, there is a feeling that he can enjoy a great future ahead at Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp was full of praise for the young midfielder and hailed him as “incredible” after the game.
“His first touch is incredible, [as is his] his acceleration with the ball,” Klopp said. “He’s not even halfway there. The good thing is that he has a lot of things to improve.”
Record night
Diogo Jota opened the scoring for the Reds inside 10 minutes. Toulouse responded through Thijs Dallinga after a mistake from Trent Alexander-Arnold.
The Liverpool defender – who was the stand-in captain for this game – quickly made amends by crossing for Wataru Endo who headed home his first Liverpool goal in the 30th minute.
Darwin Nunez scored another before half-time to give a healthy 3-1 lead.
Midway into the second half, Nunez glided past Toulouse keeper Guillaume Restes but struck the post. But Gravenberch was there to score the fourth goal on the rebound.
Mohamed Salah came on as a substitute and he put the icing on the cake by scoring the fifth goal, and in the process etched his game in the history book. The Egyptian has now scored the most goals (43) for an English club in European competitions, overtaking Arsenal legend Thierry Henry.
