{"id":334330,"date":"2025-08-10T23:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T23:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/334330\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T23:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T23:27:13","slug":"darwin-nunez-makes-instant-impact-with-debut-goal-for-his-new-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/334330\/","title":{"rendered":"Darwin Nunez makes instant impact with debut goal for his new club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Darwin Nunez has wasted no time opening his goalscoring account for Al Hilal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The forward completed a \u00a346million move to the Saudi Pro League side<\/a> from Liverpool on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"Nunez<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Nunez opened his account for Al Hilal with a debut goal against AarauCredit: Al Hilal\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

The forward came off the bench to score in his new club’s 6-0 friendly victoryCredit: STC TV<\/p>\n

Fans did not have to wait long to see their new striker in action, though.<\/p>\n

Nunez came off the bench to score in a 6-0 friendly victory over Swiss second tier outfit Aarau in their latest pre-season test.<\/p>\n

The Uruguayan produced a powerful finish to beat the goalkeeper after being picked out inside the penalty area.<\/p>\n

He had already seen a well-taken effort ruled out for offside just minutes earlier.<\/p>\n

Al Hilal, who came second in the Saudi Pro League last season, begin their campaign later this month.<\/p>\n

As a result, Simone Inzaghi’s side will also compete in the AFC Champions League this term.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Nunez’s debut strike continued his fine goalscoring form for Liverpool<\/a> earlier this summer.<\/p>\n

Having begun pre-season with the Reds, the striker scored five goals in four outings for Arne Slot’s side.<\/p>\n

He was also part of the squad which jetted to Asia for their summer tour.<\/p>\n

Nunez’s tally included a hat-trick against Stoke in a behind-closed-doors clash.<\/p>\n

\"Nunez<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Nunez completed a \u00a346million move to the Saudi Pro League, ending his three-year stay with LiverpoolCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old was also on target against both Preston and Athletic Bilbao.<\/p>\n

Following his move to Al Hilal, Nunez took to social media to share an open letter to Liverpool supporters.<\/p>\n

He wrote: “Thank you, Liverpool. Three years on, it’s time to say goodbye. I’ll take with me countless memories that will live with me forever.<\/p>\n

“I leave with a full heart, thanks to the love of a crowd that never let me down and always had my back – through the highs and through the lows.<\/p>\n

“Liverpool will always be part of who I am. I’ll miss you more than words can say. To all the staff and my team-mates – thank you, and all the very best for the future.”<\/p>\n

Nunez’s Liverpool statistics<\/p>\n

Nunez’s Anfield departure came after three years with Liverpool, having signed from Benfica in 2022.<\/p>\n

Liverpool pay emotional tribute to Diogo Jota but referee forced to cut short minute silence at Community Shield<\/p>\n

During that time, he scored 40 goals in 143 appearances across all competitions.<\/p>\n

Last season’s Premier League title was also the third trophy won by Nunez with the club.<\/p>\n

Nunez is one of seven permanent Liverpool departures so far this summer.<\/p>\n

He joins both Luis Diaz and Trent Alexander-Arnold out the door, with the pair joining Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, respectively.<\/p>\n

The exits of Nunez and Diaz in particular prompted Virgil van Dijk to call for attacking reinforcements<\/a> after their Community Shield defeat to Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n

However, Slot feels they have sufficient options in the area heading into their title defence.<\/p>\n

\"Nunez<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Nunez spent three years at Anfield, winning three trophies including a league titleCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

He told talkSPORT: “I think we have more than enough options to be good enough to win a Charity Shield like today.<\/p>\n

“And this is where I focus on myself, with the players we have we should be able to win, to score.<\/p>\n

“That’s actually what we did as well, we scored twice and last season we only scored one against them. So away and at home we could only score one against them.<\/p>\n

“So my last concern at the moment is our offensive quality. It’s not a concern, but if I look at the amount of goals we’ve conceded in pre-season, that’s not our standard.”<\/p>\n

Liverpool begin the new league season at home to Bournemouth on Friday night, live and exclusively on talkSPORT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Darwin Nunez has wasted no time opening his goalscoring account for Al Hilal. The forward completed a \u00a346million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[39023,8904,179,17706,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-334330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-al-hilal","9":"tag-darwin-nunez","10":"tag-liverpool","11":"tag-saudi-pro-league","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115007065080112335","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334330","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=334330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}