Mo Salah on target as Liverpool win 5-2 at home

The Egyptian King showed no mercy on his return. We are almost running out of words of describing Mo Salah’s debut season in England. The Liverpool forward has been on fire this season and has already scored 31 league goals. Liverpool were wounded by losing Coutinho in January but Salah has made that loss almost look like it is not a big deal. Roma also lost Palmieri who left for Chelsea, Salah who left for Liverpool as well as their legend Totti who went into retirement. The two teams are almost in the same predicament but they have believed in their abilities this season which has seen them go places.

Liverpool faced Roma tonight in the first leg of the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League and this feature was unthinkable at the start of the season. The most obvious names of PSG, Juventus, Barcelona, Manchester City, and Manchester United are already out but yet these two teams remain. Liverpool kicked off the match with a fierce attacking play that saw them create chances that were missed by Mane and Firmino in succession. It took a while before the man of the moment found the back of the net from a nicely curled effort at the edge of the box. Salah could not celebrate out of respect for his former club but what a beautiful strike it was. With his abilities, Messi has not been missed at this stage of the competition. Dejan Lovren almost made it 2-0 to Liverpool when his header hit the crossbar. Liverpool were eager to score more and Firmino found Salah on the break and the forward chipped the ball over the keeper to score his second of the night in the 45th minute. This was his 43rd goal of the season and he is now 3 shy of the all-time record at Liverpool held by Ian Rush who was in the stands to watch the African player shine against Roma.

Sadio Mane came from the break to score on the 56th minute to make it 3-0 to Liverpool. It looked all Liverpool in this match before the man of the match, Roberto Firmino scored a brace between the 61st and the 68th minutes. 5-0! Surely, Roma were out. But the team continued to fight until they scored two; the first from Dzeko and a penalty from Perotti in the 85th minute. Roma reduced the defeat to 3 goals and are planning to pull off another come back like they did against Barcelona. Will they make Liverpool regret conceding two goals in this 5-2 win at home?

West Brom hold on to a 2-2 draw against Liverpool

West Brom are trying to pull another Sunderland, at least the one that survived in the Premier League for so many years but only just. This can be seen by their recent results as they fight to keep themselves in the English Premier League. The club recently defeated Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford in a match that was tightly contested. They had the grit to see the result through and they were looking to do the same against Liverpool. But they had little in a match that was dominated by Liverpool in the early periods. Danny Ings who replaced the rested Roberto Firmino opened the scoring for Jurgen Klopp’s team. This ended his goal drought which had lasted for 930 days and dates back to game against Everton which was the last time he had scored. The English forward almost scored a second before the break but his effort was brilliantly saved by Ben Forster. The free-scoring Egyptian, Mo Salah, scored again for Liverpool today to make it 31 Premier League goals. The forward received a pass from Chamberlain before a calm dinked finish over the on-rushing Forster with 18 minutes left in the match. Liverpool probably they had sealed the job before Jack Livermore punished Liverpool for a poor job at defending a corner from the right wing on the 79th minute. Salomon Rondon scored the leveler for The Baggies on the 88th minute from a Chris Brunt free-kick. The game ended 2-2 and means that caretaker boss Darren Moore is still unbeaten after taking over at West Brom. Their survival is hanging on a thread as they are hoping that Crystal Palace lose their next game against Watford. What a sad situation to be in. Do you think they will survive?  

Salah returns and shutters Manchester City’s hopes

The two clubs met in the second leg of the clash where Manchester City were hopeful of not cutting down the 3-0 deficit from the first but also to turn around the tie into their favor and qualify to the next round. People were interested in finding out if Salah was going to start the match or not after picking up a groin injury in the first leg of this clash. It was a relief for the Liverpool fans when they heard that their start man was available for contention. Pep Guardiola made changes to the team that played the away leg as he introduced Raheem Sterling and Laporte back to the squad ahead of Gundogan and Kompany. The shocking omission was Aguero who was benched for Jesus in an attacking team filled with pacey forwards. The match kicked off with high expectations on both teams to produce an amazing performance.  Manchester City was off to a good start as they dispossessed Van Dijk and Sterling fed Jesus to score the first. It was 1-0 after 3 minutes and Liverpool were definitely parking. Manchester City dominated the first half and created many chances that should have hit the back of the net. Bernardo Silva hit the post once and Sane put the ball into the net but the ball was controversially ruled offside. City really felt hard done in a match that was intense and saw the referee producing about 5 yellow cards and saw Pep Guardiola being sent to the stands for his outrageous reaction at half-time. Arteta was under pressure as he was the man-in charge and Liverpool scored an equalizer through Salah after Mane’s brilliant run. The Manchester club had a mountain to climb as they needed to score 4 more goals to qualify. Aguero was introduced at the expense of David Silva but the damage was done. The match ended 2-1 to Liverpool after Firmino scored the second on the 77th minute which means that Liverpool are through to the semifinals with a 5-1 aggregate score. The Egyptian has once again made the difference in a big match as he scored a killer blow. It has been a while since Africa had a player that would contend for the Ballon d’Or. Mo Salah is a contender this year. What’s your take?

In other news, Barcelona were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League after losing 3-0 to Roma away from home. Roma had scored an away goal in their first leg where they lost 4-1. The scorers on this day were De Rossi, Dzeko and Manolas. Roma had enough to eliminate Barcelona by overturning a 3-0 deficit for the first time in the history of the UEFA Champions League.

Champions League Quarter-Final Overview: Manchester City vs Liverpool

The second game featuring a team with optimistic comeback hopes will feature a recently shaken Manchester City side against an offensively potent Liverpool side looking to continue their wonderful Champions League campaign into the semi-finals. Liverpool played on the front foot magnificently and took the game to Manchester City in the first leg. With the famous Anfield crowd behind them, Klopp saw his team score 3 first-half goals to now take to Manchester. Salah and Firmino were among some of the key men rested at the weekend during the 0-0 Merseyside Derby. Pep will be expecting his side to bounce back after two consecutive defeats. At halftime of the Manchester Derby at the weekend, after having rested some key players, Pep would have felt good about his side’s chances of overturning their first-leg deficit. Manchester United had other plans, however, and losing 3-2 from a 2-0 position could not have helped Manchester City players’ confidence. Pep will know that one away goal from Liverpool will mean that his side will need 5 goals to win and go through. It is a tall order, but expect to see Manchester City take the game to Liverpool in this second leg.

Key Match Points

• Liverpool historically have experience in Champions League, but will be hoping to make the most of their first quarterfinal appearance since 2008-09. Interestingly enough, Liverpool have never won an away European game against an English club.
• The Liverpool and Manchester United games were the first time in Pep’s career that his side have conceded three goals in consecutive matches.
• Pep has won only 5 of his last 24 Champions League games away from home. 9 defeats and 10 draws. 27 goals for and 32 against.
• Scoring will most likely not be a problem for City, however, keeping a clean sheet will be paramount to any comeback hopes, although last season Barcelona did the impossible and defeated PSG even after conceding an away goal.
• Liverpool
  have failed to score in only four of their 23 away matches this season. Salah will hope to have recovered from a groin injury and rejoin Firmino in the starting XI.

Liverpool hit 5 past Watford

Excellence personified. Mo Salah was at his best when Liverpool faced a Watford side that was still wounded from a 3-0 loss against Arsenal not so long ago. The Egyptian was ready to make the show his as he scored 4 goals and assisted the other for Roberto Firmino. This means that he is at 28 goals in the EPL, four ahead of the injured Harry Kane and is tipped to edge out the rest in the homestretch. Some have started comparisons between the player and the Argentine great, Lionel Messi but his coach, Jurgen Klopp, thinks that it is too soon to mention such names that have done it for 20 years. He however, mentioned that he believes that his player is on his way to be considered one of the best footballers in the world if he keeps his head down and do what he does best which is scoring goals. The race to be the best in the African continent is already finished with his closest competitor Aubameyang of Gabon also joining the Premier League in January but failing to keep up with Salah’s stats. Is Salah there yet? Tell us what you think.