There are few better sights in football than a skilful winger leaving a defender on their backside and that was among the promising moments of Milot Rashica’s challenging debut for Norwich City.

Pre-season had been warming up nicely for the summer signing but the 25-year-old was among those isolating as City lost two friendlies due to a Covid-19 outbreak, missing the final two games against Gillingham and Newcastle.

Despite that, the Kosovo international was in Daniel Farke’s starting line-up as the Premier League campaign kicked off against Liverpool and Rashica can reflect on 77 minutes which featured a decent number of positive moments to build upon.

As with the Canaries’ overall display, it was his first half that was the more impressive.

An exciting start saw Lukas Rupp set Rashica away on the left wing in the second minute but Todd Cantwell couldn’t dig out a shot and Pierre Lees-Melou's pass had just too much on it as he spread the play towards a chasing Max Aarons on the right.

A few minutes later and the wide man was taken out by James Milner but soon after he showed good strength to hold off Naby Keita in midfield and find Aarons on the right, drawing appreciative applause from the Carrow Road faithful.

He hesitated and allowed Trent Alexander-Arnold to catch up with him after being found on the left by Teemu Pukki in the seventh minute and a quieter spell followed.

That could all have changed in the 20th minute though, had Pukki made a different decision.

Cantwell's lovely pass into the right channel put the striker through on goal and Rashica burst in front of Alexander-Arnold to offer a great passing option in front of goal - only for Pukki to hesitate and then go for a near-post blast instead, which Alisson turned behind.

Rashica was in the thick of the sharp passing and movement in the 21st minute as well, with his cross cleared back to him before handing over to Lees-Melou, who freed Giannoulis but couldn’t get on the end of the left-back's cross despite his best attempts.

Pukki’s delicious flick on halfway set the former Werder Bremen man away on the left soon after but his low cross just deflected away from the charging Finn.

He chased back to close down Alexander-Arnold ahead of the opening goal in the 26th minute but couldn't prevent the cross and Mo Salah's fortunate touch teed up Diogo Jota for a simple finish past Tim Krul.

With the Reds gaining control, Rashica swapped sides with Cantwell for the final 10 minutes of the first half and that brought the enjoyable moment, as he jinked one way and then the other to leave Kostas Tsimikas on the floor, but Rupp could only nod wide under pressure.

Returning to the left after the break, the short and stocky Rashica found himself throwing himself at a Lees-Melous cross from the right shortly after the restart. He couldn’t quite make contact but Giannoulis won a corner.

The Greek left-back used his pace to recover and rob Salah in the 61st minute, allowing Billy Gilmour to send Rashica on the charge, who spread to Cantwell on the right only for Liverpool to force City backwards.

A sharp turn earned a bit of space on the left but there were no Norwich players to challenge in the area and Alisson could claim easily, a situation that would repeat itself soon enough.

There was a sight of goal for the man with a good Bundesliga goal-scoring record but he blazed over tamely after Lees-Melou had intercepted and Cantwell had squared.

Like most of the City players, Rashica was looking low on energy, but there was a big shout for a penalty just before he was replaced by Josh Sargent in the 77th minute.

Cantwell curled a ball in from the right, shortly after the Reds had moved 3-0 ahead, and although Rashica couldn’t quite reach the cross he worked hard to get in front of Alexander-Arnold on the left side of the box.

There did appear to be a slight clip of the ankle from the England right-back as Rashica chased the ball but with the Canaries new boy going down dramatically, the referee and VAR seemingly weren’t interested.

His positioning was also questionable in that third concession, getting sucked into a mass of bodies in the middle of the box where his height would make little difference, with City having no one on the edge of the box as Salah slapped home a classy strike.

VERDICT: As with City overall, there’s no need to judge too harshly when coming up against one of the Premier League’s top teams after a difficult pre-season.

The Pink Un: Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool clears the ball ahead of Milot Rashica of NorwichTrent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool clears the ball ahead of Milot Rashica of Norwich (Image: ©Focus Images Limited www.focus-images.co.uk +44 7813 022858)

There was plenty of evidence of a vibrant and exciting winger though, as Rashica strives to get up to speed, looking comfortable technically as he settles into Farke’s style.

At times the 4-3-3 shape did leave the full-backs too exposed but as Liverpool gained control, both Rashica and Cantwell were quicker to drop into a 4-5-1 shape in defence, after the impressive early intensity failed to find a goal.

RATING: 7 out of 10

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