Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville have labelled Darwin Nunez’ red card as ‘a moment of madness’ after the Liverpool striker headbutted Joachim Andersen.
The Reds came from behind to draw 1-1 at home to Crystal Palace thanks to Luis Diaz’ stunning striker, making it just two points from their opening two games - four points off the imperious Manchester City. The Colombian fired home just four minutes after £64million summer signing Nunez was shown a straight red for a wild headbutt on Palace defender Andersen.
The 23-year-old cut a frustrated figure during his home debut, missing a great chase early on before striking the post with a scuffed shot. And when Andersen confronted the striker over a coming together, the Uruguayan snapped and went head-to-head with the Dane - something Neville described as ‘a moment of madness’.
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“It’s a moment of madness isn’t it,” Neville told Monday Night Football . “We saw in the first couple of games he’s combative. He throws his head back and you’re wondering why Andersen doesn’t push him back. He snaps back, he gets a little push, then that’s a proper butt, not one of those they put together.
“That’s a proper butt to the underside of the nose, he’ll learn from that. As much as Liverpool playing well tonight, it’s a problem now because next week and then they’ll miss him for a couple of games.”
Referee Paul Tierney was looking straight at the incident after both players remonstrated with him about the previous tussle, and the refusal to try and conceal his actions demonstrates that the red mist descended on Nunez. And former Reds defender Carragher said the former Benfica man will be ‘absolutely gutted’ for letting his team down.
“I couldn’t believe when he throws his arms up, he’s obviously remonstrating to the referee,” Carragher added. “They’re looking at the referee, Nunez straight at the referee ‘why aren’t you looking at this? Why isn’t it a foul?’ Andersen’s now looking at Nunez. There’s moments of madness.
“I cannot believe how he thinks he’s going to get away with that when he’s remonstrating at the referee, there was no other option but you could not have had a better view. The whistles in his mouth and Andersen has just been touched it shows you the view the referee had.
“As he’s walking back to that bench, he knows what he’s done, he’ll be sitting in the dressing room absolutely gutted - and rightly so. He’s let himself down and his team down, the points dropped. If he’s on the pitch I’m sure Liverpool would’ve went on to win.”
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