Salah lifts Liverpool closer to Champions League final
LIVERPOOL, England — Mohamed Salah produced two world-class finishes and set up goals for Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino to lead Liverpool to a 5-2 win over former club Roma on Tuesday, leaving the English team in sight of the Champions League final.
Salah’s display was as exquisite as Roma’s defending was naive, with Liverpool scoring all of its goals in a breathtaking 33-minute spell either side of halftime amid a cauldron of noise at Anfield.
The Italian side came back from a 4-1 first-leg loss to Barcelona in the quarter-finals and consolation goals in the final nine minutes from Edin Dzeko and Diego Perotti has given them a similar deficit to overcome.
In the latest virtuoso performance of his stunning first season at Liverpool, Salah curled a shot into the top corner in the 36th minute and doubled the lead in the 45th with a dinked finish that is fast becoming his trademark. He now has 43 goals for the season in all competitions with potentially five games left.
“Outstanding, pretty much undefendable,” Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said of Salah. “He is playing a season that is not normal.”
The Egypt forward wasn’t finished there, taking advantage of Roma’s high defensive line to provide rightwing crosses for Mane and Firmino to score almost identical goals in the 56th and 61st minutes, respectively.
Firmino glanced home a header from James Millner’s corner in the 69th to leave Roma’s players on the floor — literally in the case of its distressed goalkeeper, Alisson.
Dzeko chested down a long pass to make it 5-1 in the 81st minute, and when Milner handled a shot from Radja Nainggolan, Perotti converted the penalty in the 89th.
“The tie is not over, we have already proven that against Barcelona,” Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco said. “Whoever doesn’t believe in a comeback should stay home. That applies to the fans in the stands, as well.”
Bayern Munich plays Real Madrid in the other semifinal, with the first leg in Germany slated for Wednesday.
Roma knows all about Salah, who scored 15 goals and set up 11 more in the second of his two seasons at the Italian club before joining Liverpool for 42 million euros (then US$47 million) in June.
He’s obliterating those figures at Anfield this season. His double saw him surge past Cristiano Ronaldo’s 42 goals for Manchester United in the 2007-08 season, for example.
Salah won English soccer’s Player of the Year award on Sunday. At this rate, the Ballon d’Or could be his next year.
A three-goal deficit won’t scare Roma’s players — just look at what they did to Barcelona in the Stadio Olimpico two weeks ago. Yet, Liverpool failing to score is unlikely on the evidence of this season, particularly the first 69 minutes of this game at Anfield.
“If any of my players think Roma doesn’t have enough to come back, they will not play,” Klopp said.