Salah brilliance fires Reds to brink of final
Non-try over halfback’s name shows we have a long way to go beyond sad cliches
Steve Douglas
Mohamed Salah looked to the ground and held up his hands, almost apologising for the beauty of his goals.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp laughed to himself in incredulity. Roma’s players, former teammates of Salah, were shellshocked. Anfield rocked in jubilation.
In the latest virtuoso performance of his stunning first season at Liverpool, Salah produced two worldclass finishes in the first half, then set up further goals for Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino to help his team into a scarcely believable five-goal lead in the Champions League semifinals. Then he handed his old club a lifeline — by leaving the pitch.
After Salah was substituted in the 75th minute, Roma seized the initiative and scored two late goals to escape from Anfield with a 5-2 loss from the first leg yesterday.
The Italian side has already shown in this season’s competition that a three-goal deficit can be overcome. Just two weeks ago, Roma beat Lionel Messi’s Barcelona 3-0 in the Stadio Olimpico to advance from the quarterfinals on away goals.
Liverpool have been warned ahead of next week’s second leg.
“The tie is not over, we have already proven that against Barcelona,” Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco said. “Whoever doesn’t believe in a comeback should stay home. That applies to the fans in the stands as well.”
There was a strange atmosphere after the final whistle of one of the most extraordinary Champions League matches. Liverpool had just become the first team in 23 years to score five goals in one leg of a semifinal, yet their players left the field thinking it was an opportunity lost. Roma’s fans, meanwhile, sang loudly and proudly long after the final whistle. They had been given unlikely hope.
“We have to work again in Rome now, that is no problem,” Klopp said. “There would have been work if we had won 5-0.”
It is still in Liverpool’s hands, though. Especially with Salah in the team. The Egypt forward’s display was as exquisite as Roma’s defending was naive, with his two goals moving him to 43 for the season in all competitions. Salah won English football’s Player of the Year award on Sunday and the Ballon D’Or could be his next year.
His first goal came after Roma striker Edin Dzeko gave up possession cheaply in Liverpool’s half. The ball made its way to Salah, who cut inside from the right edge of the penalty area and curled a shot in off the crossbar, near to the post. It couldn’t have been placed any better.
If that was a typical Salah finish from his first half of the season, his second goal was a replica of a couple of his more recent strikes. Firmino timed his through ball perfectly and Salah outpaced Juan Jesus before applying a dinked finish over goalkeeper Alisson, just like he did to eliminate Manchester City in the quarter-finals. Juergen Klopp on Mohamed Salah
“Outstanding, pretty much undefendable,” Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said of Salah, who he signed from Roma for €42 million in June. “He is playing a season that is not normal.”
Salah didn’t celebrate either of his goals, out of respect for his former teammates, but he made them suffer by setting up goals for the others in Liverpool’s devastating forward line.
Taking advantage of Roma’s recklessly high defensive line, Salah provided right-wing crosses for Mane and Firmino to score almost identical, close-range goals in the 56th and 61st minutes. Salah, Firmino and Mane have scored 28 goals between them in this season’s Champions League — more than every other team that has taken part in the competition.
When Firmino glanced home a header from James Milner’s corner in the 69th to make it 5-0, Liverpool had scored five goals in 33 minutes.
The Steve Hansen “Triple T” controversy highlights how a lot of the racism which film director Taika Waititi so rightly and bravely pointed out exists in New Zealand could be classed as unthinking.
Shocking attitudes from the white ruling class towards Maori, for instance, were abhorrent and became inherent. Some of these racist attitudes found their way into state thinking thanks to patronising studies of Maori life, as those who do Treaty of Waitangi studies find out.
The general awareness of New Zealand’s history, beyond cliches and stereotypes, is poor. We have never widely embraced or focused on the fascinating personalities who made us who we are. Hone Heke, a complex man, was turned into a caricature who kept cutting down a flag pole like something off a bad Disney movie.
Issues, incidents and even atrocities have been glossed over to put it mildly. Some might say they have been deliberately obscured.
They include a New Zealand Rugby Union which shamefully permitted All Black teams to be selected on racist grounds at the behest of their South African counterparts. Imagine the hurt and damage to dreams that caused.
You still hear racist slurs, observe racist attitudes, all the time.
All Blacks coach Hansen wasn’t trying to offend when he bypassed pronouncing Chiefs halfback Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi’s name, using a nickname instead. But in the context of our history, and on reflection, he got it wrong.
On the pure racism scale, Hansen’s blunder doesn’t push the needle too far. On the unthinking scale, it’s a 10 out of 10. The end result is unfortunate, and we have the great