Salah double fires Liverpool to win
A near-perfect performance from Mohamed Salah has lifted Liverpool to the cusp of the Champions League final after the prolific striker scored twice in their 5-2 rout of his former club, AS Roma, in their first leg match at Anfield yesterday.
Salah has now scored 43 - yes 43 - goals in 47 appearances this season, easily justifying his €42 million (NZ$71.6m) price tag after transferring from Roma at the beginning of the season.
In the latest virtuoso performance of his stunning first season, 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.
The Egypt forward wasn’t finished there, taking advantage of Roma’s high defensive line to provide crosses for
Sadio Mane and Roberto 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.
‘‘Outstanding, pretty much undefendable,’’ Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said of Salah.
‘‘He is playing a season that is not normal.’’
Roma did incredibly well to overturn a 4-1 deficit in order to oust favourites Barcelona on away goals in a remarkable quarterfinal earlier in the month and it will take something extraordinary again to reach the tournament decider against either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, although two late away goals to Edin Dzeko and Diego Perroti have kept that dream alive.
At 5-0 down it appeared mission impossible, and Klopp may regret substituting the superb Salah, who was named PFA Players’ Player of the Year earlier in the week, in the 75th minute.
‘‘We have to believe for the return game. You have to believe because in football everything is possible, even if it will not be easy,’’ said Roma manager Eusebio Di Francesco.
‘‘I don’t want to hear about ‘miracles’ because it is about believing in your work and what we do. It is going to be different from the Barca game, it will be tougher. But whoever doesn’t believe should stay at home.’’