Luis Suarez defends Darwin Nunez after his performance for Uruguay

Luis Suárez praised the performance of Darwin Núñez in Uruguay's 3-1 win over Chile at the Estadio Centenario in the first match of the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. The Uruguayan national team's all-time leading scorer highlighted the great game of the striker from Arguello, who was unable to score in the 3-1 win over Chile.

First, the current Liverpool striker, who was the starting centre-forward in Marcelo Bielsa's official debut as coach of the Celeste, posted on his Instagram account: "We started the qualifiers in the best way, winning at home for the joy of everyone. Thanks for the support!" Suarez, Uruguay's all-time leading scorer who was not called up by Bielsa, commented: "Good one, Darwin! Great game, and starting with a win is always important! Vamo' arriba con todo que recién empieza".

Nunez thanked the Gremio of Porto Alegre striker for this gesture and said: "Thank you, striker, for always supporting me! Idol!". The 24-year-old had an outstanding performance against La Roja, for example assisting both goals scored by Nicolás De La Cruz. However, after the match, Núñez said of the chances he was unable to convert into goals: "I had chances to score goals, but it didn't work out. The truth is that their goalkeeper (Brayan Cortés) saved some of them very well, and I had other chances where he went a little over the top, but well, we have to keep working".

Facts about Darwin Nunez

Darwin has three goals for Uruguay's senior national team: he scored on his debut on 15 October 2019 in a friendly against Peru, made it 3-0 against Colombia in November 2020 in Barranquilla for the Qatar 2022 qualifiers, and scored again in September 2022 in a friendly against Canada.