Taiwo Awoniyi talks about his emotional experience after scoring against former club Liverpool

Former Liverpool striker Taiwo Awoniyi, who scored the only goal in Nottingham Forest’s 1-0 win against the Reds earlier today spoke about the moment being emotional for him. The player signed on for the Reds aged 18. After various loan spells, he oversaw a permanent move to Bundesliga outfit Union Berlin in 2021.

In his seven-year stint at Merseyside, he was not able to make even one appearance for the Reds. However, on his return to the Premier League and facing his old employers, Awoniyi’s goal proved to be the difference on the night.

Steve Cooper would be a delighted manager to see his squad beat the visitors, whom he had earlier called a “brilliant test”. Jurgen Klopp on the other hand though would be unhappy to return back to Lancashire without the three points in the bag, even with the Reds being the favourites to win this encounter.

Here is what he said to BT Sport (via Liverpool Echo) about his performance and match-up against his old club:

“I think this team we stick together, we’re a family, the fans are always with us, we just have to keep on going. I was looking forward to playing Liverpool because they signed me when I was 18 and it was an emotional game for me. For me, I think it’s a good game for my team, we had a plan to stay compact and in the end we won, I’m very happy about it.”

What next for the Merseysiders?

Liverpool’s three-match winning streak across all competitions came to an end with this loss. Taking nothing away from how Nottingham played, the Reds should have put the matters to rest much earlier given that momentum was on their side heading into the fixture.

The forwards were simply not clinical enough to put their chances and the midfield, especially Fabinho was pretty lacklustre. The defence, however, could do what they could have from their position and it is unfortunate that the Reds lost this game.

Liverpool are still winless in away league fixtures this season and would hope to bring that streak to an end as soon as possible. The Reds play Ajax next in the UEFA Champions League, and hopefully, get a positive result in that game.

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• Jurgen Klopp says that Liverpool still have a lot of ambitions this season

The Reds’ charge towards a top-four finish certainly takes a jolt with this shock loss, but hopefully, Jurgen Klopp’s men bounce back from this in the best way possible.