Gary Lineker has taken to Twitter to hail Nicolò Barella, after his stunning 31st minute goal for Italy in their 2-1 win over Belgium.
What’s the story?
Well, Barella – who is said to be a target for Liverpool – shone against Roberto Martinez’s side in Munich last night.
The Inter Milan maestro opened the scoring with a wonderful goal, scooping the ball past a number of Belgians before slamming home.
Barella also provided the assist for Italy’s second goal, although he didn’t have to do much of the work.
The Liverpool target laid the ball off to Lorenzo Insigne, who embarked on a jinking run before delightfully curling the ball beyond Thibaut Courtois.
After feasting his eyes on Barella’s wonderful opener, Lineker hopped onto Twitter to write the following.
With a goal and an assist on the night, Roberto Mancini should be giving Barella a huge amount of credit for helping Italy to the win.
Gini Wijnaldum replacement?
Barella is tenacious enough to be considered as a replacement for Gini Wijnaldum, in our view.
He’s even been compared to N’Golo Kante for his industry. However, we believe Barella is better than Wijnaldum, as he has more strings to his bow.
The 24-year-old is technically excellent. He scored three goals and provided an impressive 13 assists last season under Antonio Conte.
In Wijnaldum’s case, the Dutchman also scored three, but provided no assists.
In that respect, you can see that Barella is a bit more forward-thinking with his passes.
In our view, having Barella in midfield – feeding through balls to Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah – is a frightening prospect.
Jürgen Klopp and Michael Edwards should do everything they can to bring him to Anfield quickly, before more clubs join the race for his signature.
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