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Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has urged Rio Ngumoha to keep his feet firmly on the ground following his stunning Premier League debut that culminated in a dramatic 100th-minute winner against Newcastle United on Bank Holiday Monday. The Dutch defender also revealed he harbours no ill feelings towards Anthony Gordon, whose yellow card was escalated to a red for a challenge on the Netherlands captain during first-half injury time of a thrilling encounter that concluded 3-2 in favour of the visitors.

Ngumoha, who celebrates his 17th birthday this Friday, was brought on alongside Harvey Elliott after the fourth official signalled an additional 11 minutes in what proved to be a heated battle at St James' Park, and he found the net within five minutes of his introduction, converting Mohamed Salah's delivery following a clever decoy run from Dominik Szoboszlai. The strike secured victory for the Premier League title holders after Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike's efforts had been neutralised by Bruno Guimaraes and Will Osula during the second period.

"Sixteen years old! Incredible," Van Dijk remarked about Ngumoha. "I'm very happy for him. It should motivate him even more to keep working each and every day and stay humble. He is in a good environment to progress.

"He has to look after himself and he has to learn from all of us, playing for so many years at the highest level, and take it on board and progress. That is a good target for him.

"I think if you make your Premier League debut at 16, scoring the winner, then that is a great sign of quality and being a special talent. But I also know you have to take it game by game.

"He has to keep working hard, make sure he is staying fit, progressing, take experience, and look at what others are doing and learn from that as well.

"We have very good personalities in our team and make sure that we are all in this together. We want them to progress and get better.

"It is down to him first and foremost but also us as a team. It starts with mentality, of course. You have to have the right mindset. Nowadays, if you are a football player of the highest level, it takes much more than just playing on the pitch. You have to deal with a lot of things off the pitch as well.

"Mentally, physically, there are a lot of games. But it is a good start from him. He has to have the motivation to keep working and hopefully he will have a fantastic career.

"We also have Trey [Nyoni] who also made his debut but it is still down to hard work and consistency, and improving each and every day, and let's see where it takes you. He should enjoy tonight, that is the first thing, and tomorrow he is back in training and working hard again."

On Gordon, who issued an apology via his Instagram account, Van Dijk added: "There was no beef! It is part of the game, so we carry on. We could have made it a lot easier for ourselves, I think.

"After you win a game, then it is maybe easier to give an answer. But I think we have to get back into it a little bit. I won't say the performance was bad because we played against a team that was very intense from the start until the end, and it is a difficult place to come.

"But there were so many good moments as well. And at this stage of the season, especially at the start, it is all about the points. Today, we got the three points."