The long wait is over for Darwin Nunez.
Well, that’s if you regard a whopping 63 minutes of action as an almost interminable time to tick by before scoring a first Liverpool goal.
That, though, was the strange narrative being pursued by some after the summer signing from Benfica had a steady if unspectacular start to life at his new club.
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Such is the way for any player bought for an eye-watering £64million – which could eventually rise to a Liverpool record £85m – with the fee inevitably shining an unrelenting spotlight on his first steps.
It didn’t help that in the most high-profile of Nunez’s two brief outings in the Far East, last week’s Bangkok friendly against Manchester United, he spurned a straightforward chance to get off the mark.
But there were sufficient signs in that 28-minute run-out, along with the 32 he then managed in the win over Crystal Palace in Singapore, the Uruguayan was starting to find his touch and build an understanding with his team-mates.
And just three minutes after his half-time introduction at RB Leipzig, Nunez made his mark – with a little help from his new friends.
Mohamed Salah, the regular penalty taker, was still on the field when Luis Diaz was felled for a clear spot kick. But rather than the Egyptian stepping up, the ball was handed to Nunez, who no doubt breathed a sigh of relief after Leipzig substitute goalkeeper Janis Blaswich got both hands to his effort only to be beaten by the power of the strike.
As well as relieving the pressure, it was also an indication - should it have been necessary - to the forward of the character and close-knit nature of the squad he has joined.
Nunez wasted no time notching a second, taking a Trent Alexander-Arnold pass in his stride three minutes later and stroking confidently home before completing his hat-trick after being found by Harvey Elliott. And with virtually the last kick of the match, he shot through Blaswich after good play from fellow summer arrival Fabio Carvalho.
Similar to last week when he remained calm in the face of Nunez’s bizarre derision, Jurgen Klopp won’t be carried away by the striker’s quadruple. The player, after all, has been working with his new team-mates for less than a fortnight, and there were occasional signs of their relationship being very much a work in progress.
But the weight on the shoulders has been lifted, that resiliencia already paying off. Nunez is up and running.
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