Interview'This is the peak' - Lewis Koumas reacts after making Premier League debut for Liverpool
'This is the peak,' said Lewis Koumas after making his Premier League debut for Liverpool.
The 20-year-old forward, who has been with the club since U11 level, came off the bench with a little under a quarter of an hour remaining of the Reds’ opening game of the Premier League season at Newcastle United.
Andoni Iraola’s team trailed 2-1 at that stage, but a nerveless 99th-minute penalty scored by Dominik Szoboszlai ensured the new head coach’s reign began with a point.
Wales international Koumas spoke of his pride at achieving a huge personal milestone while also helping his side to claim an important draw.
He told Liverpoolfc.com: “This is the peak. It’s quite emotional, to be honest. Now that it’s finally happened, it just takes me back to the very first moments where it was my mum sacrificing absolutely everything to get me to any session I could be at.
“I remember being at Crewe, being at Tranmere, and my mum was just doing everything.
“So ultimately it’s her to thank for being able to put myself out there and now we've reached this stage. It’s just a happy family moment and I’m just really happy she could see it.”
Read the rest of our post-match interview with Koumas below.
Would it be fair to say you have mixed feelings when you look back on the game? Were you disappointed with the way you conceded the goals?
Yeah, it was quite an end-to-end game and we just needed a little boost at the end, and Victor [Munoz] got us the pen to equalise.
I think it’s just a couple of counter-attacks. I think we can easily fix them and yeah, we’ll look to do that in the week. It’s tough [here]. The atmosphere is tough to play in and I thought we coped well and then we showed character to come back and draw the game.
What were your instructions from the boss before you came on?
It was just to add energy, add runs in behind and try to make something happen – and then happily we did that in the end.
What is your mindset now in terms of your short-term future?
I think I can help impact games as well in this league. You know, it’s nice to get my debut, but ultimately I want to go on and score goals and try to impact where we can finish in the league. So, yeah, we’ll see what happens.
From a team point of view, it’s a positive to take a point away from a really tough stadium in the manner you did…
Yeah, it’s what the big players are there for: we couldn’t win the game so we find a way to get a point out of it and the characters have stepped up. Dom’s took the pen and there’s absolutely no saving it, it’s a clinical moment and it’s a good point on the road and we’ll move on to next week. A pressure moment under the lights, you wouldn’t want anyone else on it.
Finally, what about next week? Back at Anfield against Nottingham Forest. Is it a case of using this result as a stepping stone to go and show the real Liverpool?
Yeah, definitely. We’ll be back at Anfield in the Premier League, so that helps itself with the home crowd. We’re going to need them and we’re going to look to put up a performance.