Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MANE AGAINST BOYS
Sadio hat-trick and Salah’s 30th of the season inspire Liverpool
SADIO MANE produced a magnificent hat-trick as Liverpool ran riot in Portugal. The Senegal international became only the second player in the club’s history to score three goals away from home in Europe, as Jurgen Klopp (left) and his side announced themselves on the European stage.
And Mane was delighted with his treble, especially the fact that he saved the best for last.
He said: “We needed to play as a team and that’s what we did. We played great football and scored five goals. I enjoyed the fifth goal the most. It was not
THOSE raised eyebrows when Jurgen Klopp said Liverpool can win the Champions League are not arched so high any more.
The German has been here before of course, with an unfancied and underrated Borussia Dortmund side that came so close in 2013, and knows what it takes to silence the big guns: pace and stealth.
His Reds team have both in abundance, and proved anything Manchester City can do, they can do better, with five superb goals to put them firmly in the quarter-finals and make the return leg a formality.
It was the manner of victory which spoke most about Liverpool’s credentials in this competition. The sheer verve on the break, the intense quality of their front three will have sent a message to the most aristocratic of opponents.
And the omens are good too. This was the eleventh time they have travelled to Portugal for European duty, and only their third win in the country. After the previous two – Benfica in the European Cup quarter-finals of 1978 and 1984 – they went on to lift the trophy.
Klopp will not get carried away, with so much English quality left in the Champions League it would be foolish to do so. But he can rest his star players when Porto visit.
He will be confident too, of progressing further, such was the majesty of the goals they produced, with
Sadio Mane scoring three, and his partners Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah again finding the net.
But there was excellence too from James Milner and Georginio Wijnaldum in midfield, and from the central defensive partnership of Virgil van Dijk and Dejan Lovren, who showed real strength.
As first halves in Europe go, this was close to perfect for Liverpool, who seemed to be toying with their opponents at times.
If it was no surprise Salah recorded his 30th goal of an incredible campaign, then Porto’s willingness to let him and his teammates have so much of the ball was puzzling.
In that first period, Klopp’s men were allowed 65 per cent possession, a remarkable statistic away from home in this competition, especially against their technically-gifted hosts who thrive on a hostile support.
Their game-plan was perhaps to give Liverpool the ball, as many in the Premier League do, in an attempt to stop them breaking at the breath-taking and deadly speed that has become Klopp’s trademark. It did not work.
From the opening moments, Liverpool were lightning quick on the counter, with Mane seeing so
much of the ball, and Salah too, allowed to run at will.
When Andy Robertson fired in a vicious cross that Firmino came close to heading home, there was a sense a goal was imminent, and it arrived after Mane again darted free into the penalty area.
His cross was poor, but the excellent Wijnaldum drove back into the box with intent, and when his shot was blocked, he kept his head to allow Mane to run onto the ball and fire in under the body of hapless keeper Jose Sa.
Sa was selected ahead of the experienced Iker Casillas, and at that point, with the Portuguese side looking so nervous, it seemed a big mistake to overlook a man who has played in this competition for a record 19 seasons.
It seemed an even bigger one four minutes later, when this time James Milner followed Wijnaldum in showing more desire and strength than his opponents in midfield, as he charged into the box and saw a shot crash back off an upright. Salah though, was as alert as ever, showing technical excellence to lift the ball delightfully over a challenge and cushion it with his head before turning in from close range.
There could have been more, with Robertson twice in good positions on the left side, but both times the ball was smothered, and that was a worry, Liverpool producing their usual nervy, subdued start to a second half in a game they are leading.
Yet on 53 minutes another breathless break saw Salah charge from his own half and pick out a sublime pass to Firmino. His shot from the edge of the box was parried but Mane was alive to smash home the rebound.
Liverpool saved the best until last though.
Salah driving from his own half before feeding Firmino, whose flick to set up a shot was sublime, and when that effort was saved, of course Mane had arrived at pace to stroke home the loose ball. Sublime.