Report: Only Kylian Mbappé was faster than Liverpool’s ‘special’ player in the 2021/22 Champions Leauge

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Darwin Nunez set the second-fastest pace in the Champions League last season, according to reports. The Liverpool striker is rapid.

This comes from AS. They’ve seen the UEFA Technical Report for the 2021/22 Champions League season and it includes some interesting data.

The data suggests that Kylian Mbappé registered the fastest top speed in the Champions League at 36.7km/h. No surprise there – the Frenchman is incredibly quick.

What’s great to see, though, is that Darwin Nunez is second. The Uruguayan, then at Benfica, reached 36.5km/h – incredibly close to the Paris Saint-Germain star.

Darwin Nunez shows off his pace

That right there is one of the reasons Liverpool signed Nunez in the first place. A lot of attention is paid to his stature – standing well over 6ft tall and able to compete with defenders physically. Nunez offers the Reds a new option in that regard as he’s a force in the box.

But the fact that the 23-year-old is also as quick as anyone means he slots into the original gameplan, too. Nunez is going to be devastating on the break as no one can really keep up with him – not unless Mbappé is the one chasing him back. We don’t think that’s likely for a few reasons.

This isn’t the first time that Nunez’s pace has been impressive on paper, either. He reportedly registered the fastest top speed on the Premier League’s opening weekend, too.

And so it’s easy to see why Pep Lijnders calls him a ‘special’ player, per Goal. The Uruguayan can seemingly offer everything you want in a striker and truly fits the ‘all action’ box. Nunez is a threat no matter how defences play up against him and we imagine he’ll terrorise teams in every competition this season.

Now if only he’d been available at Old Trafford.