The striker came off the bench in the 65th minute at the Gtech Community Stadium and won the match with his late heroics.
It looked to be a day of frustration for the title-chasing Reds until Nunez broke the deadlock in the first minute of extra time before securing victory with 93 points on the clock.
Team News
He doesn’t
There was just one change to the line-up deployed in the draw at Nottingham Forest in midweek, with Kostas Tsimikas replacing Andy Robertson at left-back.
Alisson, Van Dijk, Konate, Diaz (Nunez, 65 years), Szoboszlai (Elliott, 80 years), Mac Allister (Jones, 80 years), Salah, Gakpo (Chiesa, 87 years), Tsimikas (Robertson, 65 years), Gravenberch, Alexander-Arnold.
Submarines not used: Kelleher, Endo, Quansah, Bradley.
First half
Both teams created many vacancies in the first half, the first being the hosts’.
Mikkel Damsgaard was positioned at the back post but failed to touch Mads Roerslev’s drill from the other side of the penalty area. If he had, it probably would have led to the opening match.
Cody Gakpo headed straight at Mark Flekken and Luis Diaz twice went close as Liverpool began to gain a foothold. Then, Ryan Gravenberch’s lateral effort from 20 meters after patient play was repelled by Flekken.
Brentford, however, recalled their various threats: Christian Norgaard scored just above a free kick and Bryan Mbeumo tested Alisson Becker during a counter-attack.
Dominik Szoboszlai had the misfortune of not breaking the deadlock in the 34th and 35th minutes. He was first frustrated by Flekken in the penalty area, then by the crossbar, which prevented him from shooting from distance.
-The Reds had their best opportunity six minutes before the interval but failed to make the most of it as Gakpo was off target when finishing from close range. The Dutchman had run to respond to Mohamed Salah’s delivery, after having been at the origin of his team’s breakaway
. In
second half
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Liverpool turned defense into attack in an instant three times in the opening exchanges, but were thwarted by desperate interventions from the Brentford defenders each time.
Their pressure continued and firmly enclosed the bees. Diaz was next to threaten and his weak drive forced Flekken into a reactive save.
Arne Slot made two changes just after the hour mark and they almost had an immediate impact, Nunez heading away from Robertson’s whipped delivery.
For all the time they had been on the back foot, Brentford were now exploiting the space left by Liverpool’s probing.
In the 84th minute, Yoane Wissa broke through and headed towards goal, but Alisson eventually pushed his closest shot wide of the post.
After Trent Alexander-Arnold and Salah came close as the clock ticked towards 90, it looked like it would be a matter of points being dropped for the visitors.
But Nunez was in the right position inside the box to score a cut-back from Alexander-Arnold which put the visiting team three points by adding the finishing touch to a counterattack.
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