Ruben Neves emphatically hits back at Marcus Rashford claim after Liverpool demolition

Ruben Neves appeared to claim that he owns his signature celebration and isn’t copying the trend set by Manchester United star Marcus Rashford.

The Wolves midfielder, 25, capped off his side’s stunning 3-0 victory over a rudderless Liverpool with a goal which he passionately revelled in. Mirroring the motion which Rashford now does after scoring – such as in United’s dramatic 2-1 win against Crystal Palace at the same time on Saturday – Neves looked to suggest that the move was his own and not the English striker’s .

With one hand pointing to his head and the other at his chest, the Portuguese maestro seemed to be telling fans that his celebration belonged to him first, having done the same gesture for years prior to Rashford using it. A video posted by a Wolves fan on social media showed Neves’ message, as the club’s official Twitter account also tweeted: “Nobody does it better,” with a winking face emoji.

Fortunately for both Neves and Rashford, they each enjoyed successful days at the office on Saturday. While Rashford scored United’s vital second goal to give them all three points at home to Palace, having been reduced to 10 men following Casemiro ‘s red card, Neves powered Wolves to a memorable win at home to an out-of-sorts Liverpool.

The men from Molineux were 2-0 up after just 12 minutes, with an own goal from Joel Matip being followed by a debut strike from defender Craig Dawson. Wolves had it smooth sailing from then on and in the 71st minute, Neves scored a rare goal from inside the penalty to compound the Reds’ misery.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp wasn’t so impressed, though, saying: “The third goal I don’t count because it was the first time they passed the halfway line in the second half. The other two goals, going into a game with all the things we said during the week and before the game then this is the start is horrible.”

It was indeed a horrible day in the Midlands for Klopp and co, but not for Julen Lopetegui ‘s men. “[I am] happy of course. Overall about the win, we need wins to achieve our aim and today we played a very good team,” Lopetegui, who’s already faced Klopp’s Reds three times in his brief stint at Molineux, told BBC Sport post-match.

“I think in the first half we overcame then, scored two goals, sometimes you overcome the opponent but don’t score and in the second half they overcame us. We suffered a lot in the first 20-25 minutes. We recovered then after we changed some things, we get a very good score for us, a very good win for us.”