Footage currently circulating on social media shows Crystal Palace’s Joachim Andersen involved in physical battles throughout the game with Darwin Nunez, which culminated in him headbutting Andersen and receiving a red card.
Liverpool’s marquee summer signing saw red during his side’s 1-1 draw with Palace. In the match, the visitors took a surprising early lead against the run of play. Wilfried Zaha got the first goal with a smart finish into the bottom corner.
Jurgen Klopp’s side then suffered a further setback in the second half when Nunez got a red card for headbutting Andersen. Somehow, Liverpool grew stronger a man down, with Luis Diaz grabbing a superb equaliser just minutes after the dismissal.
As a result, Liverpool are winless in their first two matches so far this season. Meanwhile, Crystal Palace will be happy to get their first point of 2022/23 from this solid performance.
After the game, Jurgen Klopp shared his thoughts on Nunez’s sending-off.
“That’s of course a red card,” admitted Klopp, via Sky Sports. “He was provoked all the time, but that’s not how he should behave.”
“He knows that [he let his teammates down] himself, and I will talk to him. It makes no sense that I talk too much now in public about it. It’s absolutely not the reaction we want to see. The challenge is in the centre-halves, they probably will do that to him. He is a handful himself, but that’s not the right reaction.”
Later on, Klopp also mentioned that the red card is an experience that Nunez will learn from, and he will talk to him about it in due course.
As the Liverpool boss mentioned, Andersen frustrated Nunez throughout the match. Now, footage on social media shows exactly how the Crystal Palace man got under the Uruguayan’s skin.
New footage shows build-up to Nunez red card
The video, posted by Ghanaian journalist Frank Darkwah on Twitter, showed a host of different clips of Andersen’s work.
From the first whistle, Andersen made sure to let his opponent know that he was not in for an easy match. At every opportunity, every tackle, the Denmark defender made contact somehow with Darwin Nunez.
He also consistently barged and grabbed the Liverpool forward whenever he could, being as physical as possible to rile Nunez up. Furthermore, the pair repeatedly exchanged words at different points in the match; we can’t imagine that they were particularly kind, either.
Andersen’s wily performance also included some savvy displays of gamesmanship. In the first half, when Nunez caught the Dane in a tackle, Andersen made the referee acutely aware that there was contact. Contrastingly, he would berate Nunez for hitting the ground following an impact.
Additionally, the Liverpool man played right into his opponent’s hands. He reacted to every subtle dig, pushing Andersen back and waving his arms at the officials.
Ultimately, the chippy game reached his boiling point when Nunez headbutted his marker. Joachim Andersen had achieved exactly what he had set out to do. He also had a top display when he focused on the actual match, too.
However, his actions did elicit a disgusting reaction from people on social media.
Andersen receives death threats
On his Instagram, the Crystal Palace defender shared the sheer volume of messages he had received after last night’s game. These messages, a lot of them abusive, included death threats.
“Got maybe 3-400 of these messages last night,” he said, quotes via BBC Sport. “I understand you support a team but have some respect and stop acting tough online.
“Hope Instagram and the Premier League do something about this.”
The Premier League are now in contact with Crystal Palace over the abuse that their player received.
Featured Image Credit: Getty
