We are not losing sleep over Salah
FAMILIAR: Kolarov knows all about the Egypt star ALEKSANDAR Kolarov has not bothered ringing his old Manchester City colleagues for advice on how to stop Mohamed Salah – because Roma know all about him.
After preventing Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez from scoring during their remarkable second-leg comeback against Barcelona in the last round, the Italians are claiming they are not losing any sleep over facing their former striker, despite his sensational 41-goal season for Liverpool.
City will certainly have recurring nightmares over Salah, who scored in all three of Liverpool’s victories against them this season, including both legs of the Champions League quarterfinals.
But Kolarov, who quit City after seven years to join Roma last summer as Salah was heading in the opposite direction to the Premier League, did not appear to be pressing the panic button against the man he will have to try to mark at Anfield.
“I haven’t spoken to anyone at City about Salah because it is not about stopping one player,” said the Serbia captain. “It would be dangerous to focus just on him. Liverpool are not only about Salah. They have a number of good players.
“Against Barca, we did not focus just on Messi. We played as a team and by playing in this way we can achieve great things.” Kolarov can get all the information he needs from team-mate and best pal Edin Dzeko – another former City player – who played alongside the Egypt striker last season.
Dzeko believes Salah’s spell in Serie A helped mature him after his false start with Chelsea.
“It is such a shame that he left us,” he said. “I have talked with him about his past when he was playing at Chelsea. Obviously he was much younger and everyone knows the English league is not the easiest in the world. But I think Italy did him good. He played three years in Rome and he scored a lot of goals in Serie A, he learnt a lot here.”
“We text each other a lot. When the semi-final draw was made, I just wished him luck in breaking the Premier League record but told him he can take a rest against us.”
Last summer, you could have got long odds on Kolarov, 32, staying longer in the Champions League than his former club City.
Even Kolarov admits he did not expect it but now they are in the semi-finals, he says Serie A’s current third-placed team intend to make the most of it.
“No, I didn’t have any target in the Champions League when I signed,” he said. “We just took it game by game but it is not by luck that we are here. We deserve to play in the last four.”
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