MO WORKS WANDAS

Super Salah fires Liverpool to fantastic win on a crazy, magnificent night of footballing drama

BY

IT was manic, marvellous and magnificent – and yet again Mo Salah was the man to deliver for Liverpool.

This was a truly sensational Champions League game won in dramatic fashion.

It had everything. Brilliant goals, bad defending, a red card and, in true modern football fashion, VAR drama.

Liverpool somehow left Madrid with a huge three points to put themselves in pole position in Group B as they maintained their 100 percent record to put one foot in the knockout stages.

But they had to recover from blowing a two-goal lead and then survive a late penalty shout for Atletico.

Salah had scored the first and Naby Keita the second before a double from Antoine Griezmann got the hosts level.

But when the French striker saw red in the second half for a high kick on Roberto Firmino, the game swung again.

Salah scored Liverpool’s third from the penalty spot, despatched as coolly as the spotkick he scored in the same Wanda Metropolitano Stadium that set the Reds on the way to a Champions League triumph over Spurs in 2019. And, in doing so, the Egyptian ace became the first player to score for nine games in a row for the Reds.

A remarkable record for a remarkable night that ended with Atletico being denied a penalty when German ref Daniel Siebert reviewed a foul by Diogo Jota on Jose Gimenez.

Liverpool returned to the stadium where they last lifted the European Cup in 2019, and they started like a side out to show they could win it for a seventh time. They were in front after just eight minutes. Salah skipped past three Atletico players as he cut inside and his low left-foot shot flashed into the net via a wicked deflection. Then came a stunning finish from Keita in the 13th minute. Trent Alexander-arnold’s

ball into the area was poorly dealt with by Felipe Luiz and, when the clearance fell to Keita, he cut across it with a superb volley to send the away fans in the Wanda Metropolitano wild.

It looked like the sea of yellowshirted players would continue to stream forward and cause Atletico problems all night.

But the Spanish champions responded in fantastic style, thanks to a double from a bangin-form Griezmann.

His first in the 20th minute was a clever touch after Koke drilled a low effort into the area from Thomas Lemar’s cross.

There was a short delay as VAR checked if an offside Lemar had touched the ball before it found the net but he hadn’t.

Keita was at fault – he was very easily beaten by Lemar in the build-up.

And the Guinea midfielder was again culpable when Joao Felix beat him before sliding the ball to Griezmann for the equaliser.

The returning Atletico hero took a superb touch to take the ball away from Virgil van Dijk and found the net with a fine low strike. But then the game swung again after the break.

Griezmann, so good for Atletico in the first half, was redcarded for a high foot on Firmino (left), much to the anger of an animated Atletico manager Diego Simeone and the home fans in the stadium.

Liverpool were struggling to break down the dogged Atletico defence, though.

That was until Mario Hermoso stupidly bundled over Liverpool substitute Jota in the area with 12 minutes to go and the ever-cool Salah stepped up to seal a huge three points.

But there was still time for more drama as VAR intervened to deny Atletico and former Red Luis Suarez a penalty to level it up again.