Salah makes Liverpool history in 6-1 Europa League rout
Egypt international Mohamed Salah made history for Liverpool as Jurgen Klopp’s side hammered Sparta Prague 6-1 on Thursday to storm into the Europa League quarterfinals 11-2 on aggregate.
After winning 5-1 the opening leg of their round-of-16 tie in Prague, Liverpool scored four in the opening 14 minutes at Anfield as Sparta had no answer to the home side’s high pressure.
Salah seized the ball on the right of the area before shooting inside the far post over Sparta goalkeeper Peter Vindahl Jensen for his 20th goal of the season, becoming the first Liverpool player to score at least 20 goals in seven straight seasons.
The former Roma star also had three assists to make this his sixth career season with 20 goals and 10 assists in all competitions. Lionel Messi (13), Luis Suárez (9) and Cristiano Ronaldo (9) are the only men’s players with more such seasons in the 21st century.
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Salah, who injured his hamstring with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations in January, started after having been used as a substitute in both the first leg in Prague and a 1-1 draw with Manchester City on Sunday.
“It was on us to decide how good a game it would be and obviously we enjoyed playing football, some fantastic goals as well early on,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told TNT Sports. “From that point on it becomes a difficult game, like how do you keep going?”
Darwin Núñez opened the rout with a clinical low finish seven minutes into the game after scoring two in Prague.
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A minute later, Salah won the ball on the edge of the box to feed 19-year-old Bobby Clark to score his first senior goal for Liverpool to jump 2-0 up. Salah then scored before finding Cody Gakpo with a cross to make it 4-0.
Dominik Szoboszlai made it 5-1 in the second half with a deflected shot before Gakpo added his second.
Veljko Birmancevic had the lone goal for Sparta.