Mo Salah may have been Liverpool’s match-winner against Fulham tonight, but James Pearce noticed how the Egyptian was ‘furious with himself’ over another moment during the game.
The 30-year-old netted the only goal of a tense match with a penalty late in the first half, although he spurned a chance to double his tally and the Reds’ lead after half-time when Luis Diaz played him in after skipping past two opponents, only for our number 11 to send the ball over Bernd Leno’s crossbar.
The Athletic journalist was tweeting updates from the match, and he said of that passage of play: “So good from Diaz. Move ends with Salah furious with himself as he fires into the Kop”.
Such are the Egyptian’s high standards that it’s no surprise he was so unhappy over missing the target with that opening, particularly after the Colombian’s delightful dribbling just before he set up his teammate.
Salah need not beat himself up over it, though, as yet again he proved to be the difference for Liverpool, for whom his goals have earned 13 points this season (Transfermarkt), without which the Reds would be ninth in the table and unlikely to qualify for Europe at all.
The 30-year-old’s successful penalty racked up a remarkable statistic, as highlighted by OptaJoe on Twitter. He’s now scored in eight consecutive games at Anfield, the first player to manage that feat since Luis Suarez in 2014.
Achievements like that perfectly illustrate how phenomenal the Egyptian has been for the club over the past six years, and why he can readily be forgiven his second-half miss tonight.
You can view Pearce’s tweet below, via @JamesPearceLFC on Twitter:
So good from Diaz. Move ends with Salah furious with himself as he fires into the Kop
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) May 3, 2023