{"id":28184,"date":"2025-08-25T18:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T22:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/van-dijk-praises-ngumohas-16-dream-debut-in-the-premier-league\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T18:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T22:35:08","slug":"van-dijk-praises-ngumohas-16-dream-debut-in-the-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/soccer\/van-dijk-praises-ngumohas-16-dream-debut-in-the-premier-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Dijk praises Ngumoha’s (16) dream debut in the Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"Virgil van Dijk praised Rio Ngumoha’s Premier League debut, calling it a “dream debut” after the young Liverpool player’s dramatic winning goal against Newcastle.\n\nNgumoha, 16, came off the bench to score in stoppage time, securing a 3-2 victory for the Reds at St. James’ Park.\n\n

It’s a dream debut for him. It was a perfect technique. We stayed calm towards the end and tried to find the right solution to score a goal, and we did. I’m very happy for Rio.<\/p>Virgil van Dijk<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nWith this goal, Ngumoha, who will turn 17 on Friday, became the fourth youngest goalscorer in Premier League history, behind only James Vaughan, James Milner and Wayne Rooney.\n\nHis goal, scored in the 10th minute of added time in the second half, also ranks among the latest goals in the competition.\n\n

\"Rio<\/figure>\n\nRio Ngumoha celebrates his goal that gave Liverpool the three points at St. James’ Park.<\/em>\n\n

It was a great goal for a 16-year-old player. He had a great opportunity. He can finish very well for his age. The firmness of his shot, you don’t see it often.<\/p>Arne Slot, Liverpool coach<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nLiverpool, despite goals from Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike, was at a disadvantage for much of the match. The situation was further complicated by Anthony Gordon’s expulsion.\n\nThe match was played in a tense atmosphere, influenced in part by Liverpool’s failed attempt to sign Newcastle striker Alexander Isak.\n\n

Obviously, we all know it’s a difficult place to come, we know there was a lot of tension this week to, especially, motivate Newcastle. For us, we are disappointed to concede two goals from set pieces, but, overall, it’s three big points. We move on and focus on the next one.<\/p>Virgil van Dijk<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n

\"Virgil<\/figure>\n\nVirgil van Dijk, with a visible injury after the tackle by Anthony Gordon.<\/em>\n\nVan Dijk showed no compassion for Gordon, who was sent off for a harsh tackle on the Liverpool captain.\n\n

I told him that if that’s not a sending-off, then I don’t understand football. Unfortunately, these things happen in football. Whether he did it on purpose or not, it happened.<\/p>Virgil van Dijk<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nCoach Slot considered that Newcastle’s approach hindered Liverpool’s game.\n\n

I’m not sure I’ve seen a football match today. It was corner after corner, long throws. It didn’t have much to do with tactics. But I really liked how we stood firm. It was a very difficult first half hour, 45 minutes. We didn’t collapse at all and we went 1-0 up.<\/p>Arne Slot, Liverpool manager<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nThe coach added that, although the expulsion of a Newcastle player should have favored Liverpool, the home team’s strategy made the task difficult.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virgil van Dijk praised Rio Ngumoha’s Premier League debut, calling it a “dream debut” after the young Liverpool player’s dramatic winning goal against Newcastle. Ngumoha, 16, came off the bench to score in stoppage time, securing a 3-2 victory for the Reds at St. James’ Park. It’s a dream debut for him. It was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[680,138,7821,139],"class_list":{"0":"post-28184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-debut","9":"tag-liverpool","10":"tag-ngumoha-river","11":"tag-premier-league"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}