{"id":159230,"date":"2025-06-05T03:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T03:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/159230\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T03:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T03:56:14","slug":"liverpool-target-florian-wirtz-puts-in-crunching-tackle-on-man-united-star-bruno-fernandes-and-rows-with-bernardo-silva-in-germanys-defeat-by-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/159230\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool target Florian Wirtz puts in crunching tackle on Man United star Bruno Fernandes and rows with Bernardo Silva in Germany’s defeat by Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool<\/a>‘s main transfer target<\/a> of the summer Florian Wirtz was involved in a heated battle with Bruno Fernandes<\/a> during Germany’s Nations League<\/a> defeat by Portugal.<\/p>\n

Liverpool are pursuing a club record transfer of attacking midfielder Wirtz, with Bayer Leverkusen holding out for \u00a3120million for one of Europe’s most sought-after midfielders.<\/p>\n

The Reds are currently at \u00a3109m, but reports suggest a deal is on the verge of being agreed, with personal terms not an issue.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Reds fans got a first sighting of Wirtz since news broke of their pursuit when he lined up for his country in the Nations League semi-final clash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wirtz put in a solid performance playing just off the left of the central striker and played a tidy give-and-go for his side’s goal.<\/p>\n

He also won the praise of some Liverpool fans online for a crunching, studs-up tackle on Manchester United<\/a> skipper Fernandes in the first half, while he was also involved in a heated row with Manchester City<\/a> star Bernardo Silva<\/a> at times.<\/p>\n

\"Florian <\/p>\n

Florian Wirtz was involved in a heated battle with Bruno Fernandes while on international duty<\/p>\n

\"He <\/p>\n

He put in a crunching tackle on the Manchester United captain in the first half before a scuffle in the second period<\/p>\n

\"Wirtz <\/p>\n

Wirtz is close to joining Liverpool in a deal that could be worth up to an eventual \u00a3120million<\/p>\n

In the first half, Wirtz challenged Fernandes for a ball, but mis-timed his tackle and stood on his opponent’s foot. Fernandes hit the ground in agony and hobbled through the remaining minutes up to half-time.<\/p>\n

Things then escalated in the second period. During a Germany attack, Wirtz as tripped by Silva on the half-way line and himself stayed on the ground in pain. A few minutes later, off the ball, there was an altercation.<\/p>\n

The two players – who could have been team-mates had City not pulled out of their pursuit of Wirtz – went almost head-to-head when Silva hit the deck, seemingly claiming he had been stood on.<\/p>\n

Wirtz tried to lift the 30-year-old up from the floor, but Fernandes raced in and pulled the German away from the scene.<\/p>\n

A pushing match ensued between a number of players, with Wirtz booked for his involvement. VAR deemed there was no foul play in his altercation with Silva.<\/p>\n

In the game itself, meanwhile, the Liverpool target scored the opening goal of the game after a relatively quiet first period. While his defensive work stood out, he had one effort at goal in the opening 45 minutes and played a neat pass for Joshua Kimmich to create an opportunity.<\/p>\n

In the second half, however, he was finally allowed time on the ball and played a neat give-and-go with his captain, Kimmich, to score. He passed and made his way into the box, with the right wing back on the night delivering a clever cross.<\/p>\n

Nick Woltemade blocked off Ruben Dias, and Wirtz provided the deft flick required to beat Diogo Costa and put his side ahead.<\/p>\n

\"Wirtz <\/p>\n

Wirtz also clashed with Bernardo Silva as the Manchester City man went down off the ball<\/p>\n

\"His <\/p>\n

His clash with Silva triggered a melee, with stars such as Fernandes and Niclas Fullkrug jumping in<\/p>\n

\"Wirtz <\/p>\n

Wirtz scored the first goal of the game with a fine header to put his side ahead in Germany<\/p>\n

\"Cristiano <\/p>\n

Cristiano Ronaldo, however, scored the winner after\u00a0Francisco Conceicao had levelled things<\/p>\n

\"Some <\/p>\n

Some fans mocked Wirtz online when Fernandes beat him down the right during a Portugal attack late on<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Portugal, though, had the last laugh. Some fans mocked Wirtz online when he was beaten by Fernandes on the right flank, and\u00a0Francisco Conceicao drove in to curl in a fine equaliser.<\/p>\n

Later, Nuno Mendes, fresh from winning the Champions League in the same stadium just days ago, played a classy one-two with Fernandes and crossed for Cristiano Ronaldo to score the winner.<\/p>\n

It means Portugal will go onto play either Spain or France in Sunday’s Nations League final, while Germany will face the other in a third-place play-off.<\/p>\n

Wirtz, though, could be Liverpool player by then. An agreement is close, and completion would represent a statement move from the champions, who have already signed Jeremie Frimpong for \u00a329.5m and are close to brining in Milos Kerkez for \u00a345m from Bournemouth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool‘s main transfer target of the summer Florian Wirtz was involved in a heated battle with Bruno Fernandes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3018,15129,873,92,94,1824,43711,179,886,98,3046,93,79,100,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-159230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-bayer-leverkusen","9":"tag-bernardo-silva","10":"tag-bruno-fernandes","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-germany-football","15":"tag-liverpool","16":"tag-manchester-city","17":"tag-manchester-united","18":"tag-portugal","19":"tag-sport","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-transfer-news","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114628748399646196","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}