Three Musketeers spear Cherries
Mo Salah is congratulated by Virgil van Dijk on a day that also saw Sadio Mane (left) and Roberto Firmino score in the win over Bournemouth.
LIVERPOOL 3 Mane (7), Salah (29), Firmino (90) BOURNEMOUTH 0
Compared with what’s happened over the last couple of weeks, there wasn’t much in the way of drama in this routine Reds win.
A goal from Sadio Mane, another from – you’ve guessed it – Mo Salah, and a late third from Roberto Firmino, saw off Bournemouth.
Jurgen Klopp can store up the passion, the thrills and the electric Anfield atmosphere for Roma in 10 days’ time.
Let’s get the latest Salah landmarks out of the way first. The Egyptian scored his 30th League goal of the campaign – the first African player ever to achieve the feat – and his 40th overall.
He has now scored 18 Premier League goals this season at Anfield. The last Liverpool player to score more at home in a single campaign was Fernando Torres in 2007-08 with 21.
Salah has also scored 19 times in his last 17 appearances in all competitions.
Premier League goal number 30 was an exquisite, lobbed header in the second half.
It gave Salah’s team a bit of breathing space because they’d been toiling to add to Sadio Mane’s seventh-minute strike.
Firmino put the gloss on the scoreline in the 90th minute.
Liverpool are now unbeaten in their last 19 Premier League home games, currently the best record in the division and the Reds’ longest run since 2009.
Klopp needed to drag his side’s attention away from their Champions League exploits and the glamour of a semi-final draw and get back to the basics of beating an inferior Premier League side at home.
There is still next season’s qualification to sew up and Klopp’s job was to make sure his players didn’t take their eyes off the ball.
The first few minutes indicate that there wasn’t going to be any issues with complacency.
It took just seven minutes for Liverpool to get the scoreboard ticking over.
Salah had already volleyed just wide when Mane’s header from Jordan Henderson’s cross was saved by Asmir Begovic.
The keeper failed to hold on to the ball and the Senegal striker rammed it into the net for his 17th goal of the season.
Bournemouth are the best team in the Premier League when it comes to rescuing points from losing positions but it always looked a big ask to come back from that blow.
Begovic made a sprawling save to push away Trent Alexander-Arnold’s 17th minute free kick and held on to Salah’s low effort a minute later.
Simon Francis denied Mane with a fine challenge just as the striker was about to pull the trigger.
In sharp contrast to those heroics the Cherries defender’s careless crossfield pass presented Salah with the sort of chance he’s been gobbling up lately but on this occasion his shot flew a foot too high.
Andrew Robertson’s headed cross drifted right across the sixyard box without a team-mate getting a touch and Steve Cook’s tackle robbed Salah after he’d been put through by Jordan Henderson.
Ryan Fraser deflected Robertson’s wicked cross on to the top of his own net and there were loud appeals for a penalty when Alexander-arnold’s cross appeared to strike Cook’s arm.
A single goal wasn’t much to show for Liverpool’s first half dominance and credit had to be given to the visitors for not collapsing after conceding so early.
The pattern didn’t alter in the second half and Virgil van Dijk came close to extending the lead in the 56th minute when he struck a 30-yard drive just over the bar.
For all their dogged defending Bournemouth had posed no threat to the Liverpool goal and Eddie Howe threw on a third striker in Lys Mousset just before the hour mark.
Salah’s shot after a typically lightning break was untypically weak and Begovic was able to save comfortably.
In the 68th minute ref Chris Kavanagh then had to decide whether Nathan Ake’s touch on Salah’s back as he chased a long ball into the box was enough to give the Egyptian a penalty but he decided against it.
A minute later though Salah had his customary goal, this one a looping header over Begovic from Alexander-arnold’s diagonal cross.
Mane shaved the post with a low left footed drive and Nathan Ake cleared off the line from Firmino after he’d beaten Begovic.
Loris Karius made a superb save from Dan Gosling in the 82nd minute to keep the sheet clean at the other end.
Alex Oxlade-chamberlain drove a fraction wide two minutes from time but Firmino gave the result a more realistic look with a third in the last minute.