The full-time song choices at Anfield have been very much on point in recent games.
At the end of Liverpool’s 0-3 defeat to Manchester City in thier first match back after the international break, during which the away side were found guilty of 114 charges of financial rule-breaking, the final whistle was followed by the strains of ‘Tell Me Lies’ by Fleetwood Mac (talkSPORT).
Tonight the choice of post-match music swapped from being a not-so-subtle dig at the opposition to lauding the standout player from the Reds’ 4-3 win over Villarreal.
Anfield DJ lauds Ngumoha with apt song choice
Even though he didn’t get on the scoresheet on Tuesday, the undoubted star of the show was Rio Ngumoha, who tore the opposition apart with his electric dribbling and conjured a mesmerising assist to set up Alexis Mac Allister’s second goal of the night.
BBC reporter Aadam Patel described the 18-year-old as ‘a class apart‘, and the Anfield DJ pointedly chose to play ‘Rio’ by Duran Duran straight after the final whistle.
(Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
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Was this Ngumoha’s best Liverpool performance yet?
Liverpool fans have been no strangers to Ngumoha’s precocious brilliance over the past year or so, but his performance tonight was arguably his best in a red shirt.
As per Sofascore, he won eight of his 12 duels and completed seven out of eight dribbles whilst also executing three key passes, and Villarreal left-back Sergi Cardona will be quite glad he won’t have to come up against the Reds winger again any time soon.
Liverpool Echo reporter Ian Doyle unsurprisingly gave him a 9/10 in his post-match player ratings as he wrote: ‘Dangerous runs offered encouragement opening quarter and persisted with great assist for the Liverpool second. Tormented Villarreal defence down right and brilliant work to set up third.’
Meanwhile, Daniel Sturridge – himself a superb attacker for the Reds in his playing days – gushed on Amazon Prime (via Sky Sports) that Ngumoha has ‘God-given ability’ and a level of individual brilliance that ‘you can’t teach’.
And to think he only turned 18 in August! Just think of how high a ceiling this kid could have…
You can view the full-time footage from Anfield below, via @beth_lindop on X: