Liverpool's Florian Wirtz, who has struggled to live up to his lofty price tag since his move from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer, thought he had opened his goalscoring account for the club in Wednesday night's 1-1 draw with Sunderland. The German midfielder's reaction to finding out it went down as a Nordi Mukiele own goal has gone viral.
Many believed it'd all be sunshine and rainbows at Anfield this season, given they spent upwards of £400 million on summer additions – including Hugo Ekitike, Alexander Isak and Jeremie Frimpong – after winning the Premier League title at a relative canter, having done so with four matches to spare.
Liverpool's new faces are taking time to gel – and that is certainly the case for Pulheim-born Wirtz, who is still yet to break his duck for the Merseyside outfit. With nine minutes of regulation time left on the clock and Regis Le Bris' visitors a goal to the good, Wirtz took scoring the equaliser into his own hands... but it took a deflection off Sunderland's defender.
Florian Wirtz (Liverpool), Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal) and Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest) with a Premier League background Related
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Wirtz Finds Out His First Liverpool 'Goal' Took a Deflection in Post-Match Interview
FLORIAN WIRTZ
Receiving a pass from Curtis Jones, Wirtz received the ball before going on a slalom through defenders before wrong-footing Sunderland defender Dan Ballard with a deft little jink. That opened space up for him to curl a left-footed effort into the top corner and past the very capable Robin Roefs. And that he did, or so it looked like.
Albeit elated, the 22-year-old rushed back to the centre circle to get proceedings back underway as both sides searched for a match-winner – something that didn't arrive for either side. For reference: Sunderland had opened the scoring 14 minutes earlier through Chemsdine Taibi's looping, dipping strike over Alisson's outstretched arms.
Watch Nordi Mukiele's own goal below:
Back to Liverpool's equaliser and Wirtz thought that a weight had been lifted off his shoulders after scoring his maiden goal for the Reds – but in his post-match interview, the reporter from Sky informed him that Sunderland's Mukiele had gone down as the goalscorer.
As he stood alongside Curtis Jones, there was a brief – and a little bit awkward – pause before the unbothered youngster insisted it wasn't an issue and that he was more annoyed about Liverpool's pursuit of three points ending with a share of the spoils. "It doesn't matter for me," he said. "We draw. We wanted to win. That's what counts today. Unlucky."
Watch Wirtz's reaction to the news (15:42) below:
With Wirtz cutting a frustrated figure, Jones later added that he was disappointed that the goal couldn't be given to his new teammate. "Flo is a guy who wants the ball a lot," said Englishman Jones. "He ran so much. It's just a shame it goes down as an own goal."
After 16 appearances without a goal to his name, Wirtz – whose display against the Black Cats should not go under the radar – will be looking ahead to Liverpool's upcoming fixtures: they face Leeds United away on the weekend before the small matter of travelling to San Siro to lock horns with Inter Milan in the Champions League.
Wirtz Provides Insight to Start to Life at Liverpool
wirtz geertruida
For a player to cost £116 million, it's not unfair to expect an instant impact. Wirtz has not really provided that since his Germany-to-England transfer in the summer months, and he gave intricate insight into how he's fared in his first couple of months in the northwest. “First of all, I was very welcomed by the team," he said.
"It’s a very good team, and I’m very happy to be here. Of course, the last weeks have been difficult for us as a team, but we are on a good way to come back."
"We are doing everything to comeback and win games," he added. "We wanted the win today. We want to be on top of the table, we just have to continue and work hard. Hopefully things can change."
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Currently 11 points adrift of table-topping Arsenal after the season's opening 14 matches, Liverpool managed to prevent losing to Sunderland through Mukiele's aforementioned blunder – but the fixtures continue to come thick and fast. Whether Arne Slot and his entourage are able to salvage something from their dismal start to 2025/26 remains to be seen.