Salah sets benchmark after Mignolet flashpoint

STOKE CITY 0 LIVERPOOL 3

LIVERPOOL made the most of some moments of controversy to kill off Stoke City and return to winning ways, with Mohamed Salah again taking centre stage.

The Egyptian substitute took just six second-half minutes to score twice and take star billing after Sadio Mane had opened the scoring for Jurgen Klopp’s men.

Stoke were furious, however, that Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet was not red-carded late in the first half for a professional foul, having complained already that Mane’s goal should not have stood.

Some poor defending allowed Salah to cash in after stepping off the bench as Liverpool responded well to squandering leads to Sevilla and Chelsea in their previous two games.

The opening stages were blighted by poor passes, needless fouls and poor decisions that removed any possibility of flow from the game.

So the nature of the opening goal, complete with controversy and skill, enlivened an otherwise uneventful spell.

Joe Gomez chased a ball into the corner having raced forwards from right-back, but Stoke were adamant the England defender had failed to stop it crossing the bye-line.

The officials, however, ruled that the ball was still in play and Gomez’s cross found Dominic Solanke, whose inventiveness created the chance. He produced a neat flick into the path of Mane that left Stoke’s defenders dumbfounded and Mane then came up with a delicate chip past goalkeeper Lee Grant.

When the home team finally got into the game, it was through Xherdan Shaqiri. The Switzerland forward found space regularly on the right and his invention brought some moments of promise.

The first Stoke chance came courtesy of Mame Diouf’s overhead kick and a drive by Darren Fletcher that was blocked by Dejan Lovren and the second was from Shaqiri’s clever movement, but his cross was misdirected.

A cross from Joe Allen for Stoke was then guided wide by Peter Crouch, making his first league start of the season.

Then came the contentious moment that left Stoke seething as Mignolet raced from his penalty area to trip the advancing Diouf.

Referee Martin Atkinson awarded a free-kick but allowed Mignolet to escape with a yellow card when the case for a red appeared clear, with Shaqiri blasting the free-kick into the wall.

Mane should then have added to the anger when he raced clear of a ragged Stoke defence but struck the base of the woodwork with only Grant to beat.

Allen missed a great chance to equalise before Liverpool went two up with 13 minutes remaining, with Salah volleying Mane’s cross into the net.

Six minutes later Salah (left) added the third when he beat Erik Pieters to a diagonal ball, raced clear and fired a low shot past Grant.