Darwin Nunez on verge of breaking 96-year record that Liverpool icon Luis Suarez couldn't achieve

Liverpool star Darwin Nunez could be set to break a 96-year-old record after scoring for Uruguay against Bolivia in the Copa America.

Marcelo Bielsa’s side ran out 5-0 winners on Thursday night, with goals coming from Nunez, Facundo Pellistri, Maximiliano Araujo, Federico Valverde and Rodrigo Bentancur.

The 25-year-old looked sharp during Uruguay’s second Copa America clash, with the striker finding the back of the net on 21 minutes. Racing in behind the Bolivian defense, Nunez got onto the end of a threaded pass from Araujo, firing home past Guillermo Viscarra with a superb first-time finish.

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In doing so, the Reds ace equaled a 96-year-old scoring record set by Uruguayan legend Hector Scarone of scoring in seven consecutive games for his country.

And Nunez will now have the opportunity to break that lengthy record against the USA in Uruguay’s final Copa America group-stage game.

Given the pedigree of strikers Uruguay has produced over the years, with Diego Forlan, Edinson Cavani and ex-Reds frontman Luis Suarez all having turned out over 100 times for La Celeste, it would be some feat if Nunez were to break Scarone’s record.

And Copa America success for Uruguay could give Liverpool and new boss Arne Slot a massive boost ahead of the new Premier League season should Nunez be able to bring his international form back to Merseyside.

Last term, Nunez bagged 18 goals and 13 assists in 54 appearances for Liverpool. While those numbers are by no means poor, given the outlay spent on Nunez, who arrived at Anfield in 2022 for an initial $78.6m (£75m/€75m), more had been expected, particularly when juxtaposed with the performances of Erling Haaland at Manchester City.

But while there are doubts surrounding whether Nunez will ever reach a higher level of consistency on Merseyside, those doubts are not shared by former Leeds United boss Bielsa.

“Darwin is a player who doesn't need any kind of support," Bielsa said after Uruguay’s opening Copa America win over Panama. "You have to know what it means to play for Liverpool and who he competes with, and what his cycles were like, when he converted, when he stopped converting, why he stopped converting. These are things that he manages in proportion to the place he occupies in the football world.

“The only thing that worries me is that he is able to do what he does in an extraordinary way as many times as possible, which is converting, defining, finishing the actions, choosing where he should direct the shot that provides the right conditions to execute it.

"I insist, it would be a contradiction for me to say that what has value are the goals because I am saying the opposite. What is the best way to accompany that where he does not need company because he has shown that he can solve it on his own? Trying to give him a lot of balls to score goals.”