'What a night': Liverpool's Nunez cherishes 4-goal burst against RB Leipzig; Klopp delighted

Liverpool's new signee Darwin Nunez registered a stunning four-goal haul as the Reds thumped RB Leipzig on Thursday in their pre-season friendly clash.

Liverpool trounced RB Leipzig 5-0 in Germany on Thursday to earn their second pre-season victory. The Reds had a strong start thanks to a goal from Mohamed Salah, but they didn't take control of the game until Darwin Nunez was added at halftime. Jurgen Klopp's prolific new striker scored four goals to settle the friendly comprehensively.

The Uruguay international was the Reds' most expensive acquisition of the summer transfer window, costing them 64.2 million pounds. Nunez might surpass all previous players at Anfield in terms of cost with add-ons.

Even though it is just his third season playing in Europe, Nunez was expected to go to work with the difficult challenge of filling Sadio Mane's shoes. As with many of his signings over the years, Klopp had cautioned that the 23-year-old might need some time to adjust.

That didn't stop the striker from receiving some unjustified criticism after Nunez failed to score in his first two club appearances. The Reds manager was compelled to respond to alleged worries over his high-profile signing, claiming that he didn't care what the fans thought of him.

Nunez took RB Leipzig to the sword and scored an incredible four goals, quickly justifying Klopp's powerful response. After the half, Roberto Firmino was replaced by Liverpool's new striker, who had initially begun on the bench. 

The Uruguayan's first goal for the team came from the penalty spot, and he did it less than five minutes after being introduced. Three minutes later, he doubled his total, and 20 minutes later, he scored his first hat-trick for the club.

The final touch to Nunez's flawless evening came when he scored his fourth in injury time to help Liverpool defeat their Bundesliga opponents 5-0.

Following this epic win, the prolific striker took to Twitter to cherish his team's victory. "What a night," wrote Nunez in his post. 

Meanwhile, after the victory, Klopp acknowledged that Nunez might have felt under pressure given his price tag, but he handled it perfectly. 

"We always think that if you pay a lot of money, then the players feel no pressure or whatever," Klopp said. 

"They are all completely normal human beings, and the first touch is not perfect, then all of a sudden... This generation of players read social media, which is not smart, but they do. All of a sudden, you get in a rush and these kinds of things," the Liverpool boss added.

"That's the best way obviously to stop all these discussions. He's a different striker to what we have or what we had, but he's a really good one," the German stated.

Klopp also paid tribute to Mohamed Salah, who selflessly allowed his new team-mate to take the spot-kick and get off the mark. "Mo gives Darwin the penalty, and Darwin, Pandora's box was open. That's, of course, a perfect night for him."

Liverpool has won two games in a row after defeating Crystal Palace 2-0 last Friday in Singapore. In their first pre-season match, the Reds were shockingly defeated 4-0 by longtime rivals Manchester United earlier this month in Bangkok.

The Reds head to their training camp in Austria, and Klopp has warned his players there is still plenty of work to be done ahead of the Premier League kick-off in just over two weeks.

"We need that time now. We are not even close to where we want to be physically. We have to get there," he said.

"The weather and everything is difficult. It will be difficult in Austria as well. It's good. We have to get through this, work extremely hard, and then be fine. The most important part of pre-season starts now," Klopp concluded.