Darwin Nunez came off the bench to score a stunning goal to help Liverpool secure a 2-1 victory over Bournemouth to reach the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.

With plenty of pace, the Uruguayan striker cut in from the left and picked the ideal spot to curl the ball into the top right corner beyond an irate Ionut Radu in the 70th minute.

Before the break, Cody Gakpo scored the first goal for Liverpool. He did this by poking the ball home from close range after Harvey Elliott’s volley was blocked.

But Justin Kluivert scored for Bournemouth to tie the game. It was his first goal for the club since joining from Roma in the summer. The 64th minute saw him come out of nowhere at the far post and head home an Alex Scott corner.

In the last 15 minutes, the hosts did everything they could to attack. As the Cherries failed to tie the game a second time, David Brooks and Hamed Traore both took chances, but neither could make a good shot.

It’s the third time in the last five years that Liverpool has made it to the last eight of the competition.

The new manager, Andoni Iraola, took over for Gary O’Neil over the summer, and Bournemouth are still getting used to his ways.

Their first win of the season, a 2-1 win over newly promoted Burnley on Saturday, was very much needed as it put them one point above the bottom three teams.

Even though it can be fun to play in the EFL Cup, Bournemouth can’t let that get in the way of their main goal, which is to stay in the Premier League for a third straight season.

The Cherries still have a long and hard road ahead of them, but they can take some good things away from their loss to Liverpool.

During the first 45 minutes, Storm Ciaran brought wind and rain to the Vitality Stadium, and Bournemouth and their visitors went head-to-head. Each team had four shots on goal.

Two of those goals were scored by Kluivert, and the Dutch forward will have been glad to finally score for Bournemouth.

Midfielder Scott, another summer arrival from Bristol City, also caught the eye and he was inches away from scoring directly from a corner as he used the conditions to whip in a ball that Joe Gomez had to clear off the line.

“Nunez, Nunez, Nunez” chants could be heard all around the Vitality when the game was over.

Last season, the 24-year-old didn’t live up to his £64m price tag, scoring only 15 goals across all competitions. But he has done well for Liverpool this season.

Jurgen Klopp decided to change his starting eleven because only three players were still on the team after Sunday’s 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest. This meant that Nunez had to settle for a spot on the bench.

Brought on in the second half with the game level at 1-1, the frontman took just nine minutes to put his stamp on the match, bending a beautiful effort across goal to register for the third successive game and take his haul to seven this season.

It was an unusually quiet night for Mohamed Salah, one of those three to retain their starting berth and the only player in the Liverpool ranks to have scored more than Nunez in 2023-24.

The Egyptian had one sight of goal in the second half but could only head wide.

Liverpool’s summer revamp clearly seems to have had the desired impact as the win at Bournemouth extended their unbeaten streak to six games, while they have lost just once al