It was tough …but I never lost my belief

HE never doubted his form would return – and what a time for it to happen.

“I don’t know how to describe it but it can happen to every single player,” said Sadio Mane. “And in my mind I was relaxed that it will change.”

The Senegalese forward was talking in the aftermath of his superb hat-trick as Liverpool produced a stunning 5-0 away in Porto in the Champions League.

Only a miracle will stop them progressing to the quarter-final stages after a result which will send out a warning to the rest of Europe.

Mane had suffered a drop in form but how he put that right in Portugal after he became only the second Liverpool player after Michael Owen to score a hat-trick away from home in Europe.

“As a player sometimes it is not easy for me,” said Mane. “But I never doubted myself as I knew I could help the team.

“I always tried to remain balanced, even when it was not working, because it is my job and I have to do it. It was tough on me but it is part of football and can happen.”

Mane now has six goals in his last three Champions League appearances and 12 for the season.

That tally is just one shy of last season’s total when he missed a month of action because of the African Nations Cup and six weeks with a knee injury.

Next up for Mane and his teammates is a four-day training camp in Marbella before Premier League clashes with West Ham and Newcastle followed by the return leg with Porto.

Mane said: “We have more important games to come in the next couple of weeks so we will be ready for that.”

Captain Jordan Henderson insists Liverpool are greater than the sum of their parts and that is why they can absorb the loss of Philippe Coutinho.

So far Jurgen Klopp’s side have not truly missed the Brazil midfielder since his £142 million January move to Barcelona. There may come a time when that is not true but his departure is being made easier by the individual and collective brilliance of 30-goal Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Mane.

“We still have a lot of quality players like Salah, Mane and Firmino who can create chances as well as take them,” said Henderson after the Porto romp.

“We knew we would create chances but it was about the team. It was a team performance.”

As pleasing as the five goals was the clean sheet that accompanied it, their fourth in seven games in the competition. It was also only the second time NET RETURN: Mane was a hat-trick hero in Liverpool’s 5-0 romp at Porto while skipper Henderson, inset, saluted a team performance

We have lots of big games to come and we are ready

since February 2011 that Liverpool have kept out opponents away from home for three consecutive matches.

The £75 m January arrival of Virgil van Dijk has contributed to that as the Dutchman brings an air of confidence and coolness to an often nervy defence.

“Virgil has been brilliant since he has come in but again, the whole back four was very good,” said Henderson.

“Remember, too, that the team defended from the front and we have to do that more often. I thought the lads were brilliant from start to finish. That should be normal for us.”