Mo Salah! Mo Salah! Mo Salah! With Liverpool on the road and being in Portugal, which is a redzone for Covid-19 FC Porto only allows a limited number of fans in their stadium. With what little amount of Liverpool fans in the stadium you could hear them serenade the Liverpool players. The Reds snatched another three points in the Champions League earlier this week with a commanding 5-1 victory. Mo Salah did what fans are now accustomed to, he netted two goals in the victory. The Egyptian King is one goal shy of tying Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard with 30 Champions League goals and Sadio Mane sits at 20 career Champions League goals. If you watched the game or saw pictures from it you’ll notice the players wearing black tape around their jerseys and that comes with the passing of Sir Roger Hunt. Sir Roger once said, “I never needed a knighthood, I was knighted by the Kop. That means more.” Liverpool would be down one of the best right backs in the game as Trent Alexander-Arnold did not travel with the team. The injury will likely sideline him for a couple weeks.
The score may have been 5-1 but Liverpool missed plenty of opportunities to extend their lead. They controlled the ball 60% of the match, had 25 shots (14 on goal), and never gave Porto a real chance. Unfortunately for Porto they had to deal with injuries early, the coach had to make an adjustment to his starting eleven when a player was injured during warmups and then only fourteen minutes into the first half when Otavio came off with what looked to be a hamstring injury. Hopefully he isn’t sidelined for too long. Mo Salah had probably the easiest goal he’ll score this year as Curtis Jones took the shot from the left side of the box, the keeper did what he could to save the shot but the defender it bounced to lost it inside the six yard box and Mo tapped it in. The next goal for Mane was an even easier tap-in if that’s possible. James Milner sends a cross into the box and everyone on Porto lets it go thinking the next person will get it, however, the only person on the receiving end was one Sadio Mane to make it 2-0 going into half. Salah notched his second goal of the game in the 60th minute as Curtis Jones sent a through ball into the box where Salah was left all by himself and he is going to score 9 out of 10 times when left by himself. Porto got one back in the seventy fourth minute to give the fans something to cheer about. Unfortunately for them Roberto Firmino, the man with the brightest smile in the league scored two goals just four minutes apart to seal the 5-1 win and take another three points to sit atop the group.
This Sunday Manchester City marches into Anfield in a much anticipated game versus Liverpool. Unlike Liverpool, Man City was shut out in their Champions League match vs PSG 2-0. Liverpool remains the only unbeaten team in the Premier League and this game is a test against last year’s Premier League champs. Only separated by one point Liverpool have 5 teams chasing them. Three points will go a long way this season.
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