Salah Stars as Liverpool Rout Roma at Anfield

What a performance this was from Liverpool at their home ground, Anfield. What a performance from Mohamed Salah, in particular. We know that football is a team sport, but there was a period in this match that Mo Salah was single-handedly ripping apart the opposition Roma, in this all-important UEFA Champions League semi final 1st leg.

One went in, the next went in, the third went in, and the Reds kept finding the back of the net, once Salah began the scoring in the 36th minute. The Champions League semi finals has two legs but it seemed like Liverpool wanted to make the outcome final after the 1st leg itself. They thrashed Roma 5-2 and have done well enough to book their spot in the Champions League final, if you ask me.

Mohamed Salah – 36′ ⚽
Mohamed Salah – 45′ ⚽
Sadio Mane – 56′ ⚽
Roberto Firmino – 62′ ⚽
Roberto Firmino – 69′ ⚽

Not only did Salah score the first couple of goals, but he also assisted the next couple of goals, and there was a time when he was literally dancing around the 11 Roma footballers on the pitch. The tears in the eyes of Roma fans eventually turned into claps as Liverpool put up another brilliant performance, stirring up a party at Anfield.

What was amazing about Salah’s performance on the day is that he now has 43 goals in his first season with the club, and he’s so close to breaking a world record. We talk about the Messi’s and the Ronaldo’s, but 43 goals in a season is simply mind-blowing. And he did it all without any celebrations, just the Messi-like hands raised above his head. He just put his head down and kept doing his job for the team. Brilliant!

The commentators kept stressing about the importance of an away goal for Roma, but that was when the lead was still at 2-0 and 3-0. Once Liverpool cut loose, there wasn’t much that Roma could do. Eventually, Edin Dzeko did find the net for his team, followed by a well taken penalty by Diego Perotti, who was brought on in the 2nd half.

The last 15 minutes was completely controlled by Roma, as they unleashed themselves on Liverpool and even though the scoreline might suggest a one-sided match, trust me, this turned out to be quite a thriller. There weren’t too many minutes in this game which bored me. You really wouldn’t want to miss the 2nd leg of this UCL semi final, which takes next week!

Edin Dzeko – 81′ ⚽
Diego Perotti – 85′ ⚽

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