English-Spanish-Nigerian CB impresses on senior debut for Liverpool against Uche's Crystal Palace

Tri-national centre-back Wellity Lucky made his long-awaited professional debut on Wednesday night as Liverpool were beaten 3-0 by Christantus Uche's Crystal Palace in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup, allnigeriasoccer.com reports.

Born in Zaragoza, Spain, Lucky is eligible to represent three nations at senior level. 

In addition to Spain, the country of his birth, he qualifies for Nigeria through his father and for England, where he has lived for the past eight years.

Having joined Liverpool's academy at U13 level, the promising defender has steadily risen through the ranks to earn his first senior appearance for his boyhood club. 

Wearing the No. 92 shirt, Lucky was introduced as a 67th minute substitute for Andrew Robertson, with the Reds already trailing by two goals.

Ismaïla Sarr opened the scoring for Palace in the 41st minute, reacting quickest to a loose ball to fire home, before linking up brilliantly with Yeremy Pino to double the visitors' advantage four minutes later. 

Pino sealed the win three minutes from time, curling a low effort beyond Freddie Woodman to register his first goal in Palace colours.

Although Lucky was unable to prevent Pino from finding the bottom corner for the third goal, the teenager impressed on his senior debut. 

His assured display earned him recognition from WhoScored, who rated him as Liverpool's fourth-best performer on the night. 

Impressively, he completed all 21 of his passes, finishing with a 100 per cent passing accuracy – the highest in the match.

Liverpool view Lucky as one for the future, having tied him down to a new contract in the summer amid interest from German and Spanish clubs.

Lucky has represented England at U15 and U16 levels and received a call-up to Spain's U17 squad for a friendly against Italy in January 2023, although he did not feature.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit: liverpoolfc.com 

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