Mohamed Salah experienced a roller coaster in his last game before leaving with the Egyptian national team for the African Cup of Nations, since he was the protagonist of Liverpool’s 4-2 victory over Newcastle in the Premier League.
Salah, 31, was arrested for a penalty in the first half, and then scored two goals – his 150th and 151st goals in the Premier League with Liverpool – and assisted Cody Gakpo with an exquisite cross pass with the outside of the left foot.
Salah also played a key role in Liverpool’s second goal, with a pass to Diogo Jota, who in turn assisted Curtis Jones to finish easily.
Salah not only became the fifth player in Liverpool’s history to score 150 goals in the league, but his contribution to the victory elevated the club to the top of the Premier League table with a three-point lead.
However, Salah will no longer be available to his club, since he now travels to join the national team of Egypt in the African Cup of Nations, the main international tournament on the continent, which the Pharaohs have won seven times, a record figure.
The competition is played in Côte d’Ivoire, but Salah believes that Liverpool has enough quality to continue winning matches in his absence.
“Everyone asks me the same thing!” Salah said after the victory against Newcastle. “I want to win (the African Cup of Nations), I would love to win it,” he added.
“But without me, I’m sure that the players (from Liverpool) will manage to win games. We have fantastic players, of great quality, they just have to move the pressure away and limit themselves to playing their soccer. We have players who can play in my position, who can do what I do,” he added.
“It means a lot to play with the national team, it’s a fantastic feeling. Every time I go out on the field with the national team shirt, it’s something I can’t take for granted. I’m just happy to play the tournament and I would love to win it,” he added.
Salah’s stellar role crowned a perfect start in 2024 for Liverpool, which took advantage of Arsenal’s recent bad moment to place itself at the top of the Premier League table, after 20 days of the season.
However, it was not a simple victory for the Merseyside team, since the penalty missed by Salah in the first half was an early setback in Anfield.
But Salah compensated for that mistake, finishing at head in the 49th minute to give the advantage to the locals. The goal, his 150th with Liverpool in the Premier League, made him the fifth player to reach that figure with a single club in the competition.
After the game, Salah said that a change of footwear during the break changed his luck.
“The others (boots) with which I missed the penalty, I trained yesterday with them,” Salah told Sky Sports after the victory. “It’s not superstition because I play with a lot of boots. But when I feel like he’s going to play with my head, OK, out, I’ll change the boots!” he said.
“But I don’t like to enter the second part of the game thinking: ‘I didn’t score with this’. So I calmed down and focused on the game,” he added.
Although Alexander Isak’s incisive shot was 1-1, Liverpool was two goals ahead thanks to two shots from Jones and Gakpo, before Sven Botman’s header in the 81st minute put the 3-2 that ensured a nervous ending.
However, those fears dissipated quickly when, in the 86th minute, Salah compensated for his previous failure in the throw of a penalty and successfully transformed him to reach the three points.
After the match, Salah declared that his imminent march to the Egyptian national team provided him with extra motivation in the second half to correct his mistakes of the first half.
“The players spoke in the locker room (and said) that we had to stay calm. I failed the penalty. At the break they told me: ‘Do you want to go to the national team with that performance?’ Not at all! So I had to really concentrate, take a step forward and make a difference, and I got it,” he said.
And he continued: “It’s a great result for us. The match was very intense, and we managed to score three points that place us at the top of the table. We have to stay calm and win all the games.”
The African Cup of Nations begins on Saturday, January 13 with the match between the host country, Côte d’Ivoire, and Guinea-Bissau. The final will be played on Sunday, February 11.
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