Salah Joins 100 Goal Club As Liverpool Beat Leeds
Egypt international and Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah joined the Premier League 100 goal club after Liverpool beat 10-man Leeds 3-0 at Elland Road.
Jurgen Klopp made two changes to the side that drew 1-1 with Chelsea before the international break as Diogo Jota and Thiago replaced Jordan Henderson and Roberto Firmino.
Leeds almost took the lead after six minutes but Rodrigo couldn’t beat Alisson from 15 yards out after a good piece of play by Raphinha in the build-up. Moments later, Liverpool opened the scoring in the 20th minute after Alexander-Arnold’s cut-back found Salah who calm tucked the ball into the net for his 100th Premier League goal.
Thiago headed home another Alexander-Arnold cross minutes later, but the referee flagged for offside as Salah was caught in the build-up. Leeds were hanging on as Liverpool kept creating more chances but couldn’t finish.
Mane and Virgil van Dijk were the next Liverpool players to waste chances to extend the lead. However, Liverpool went into the break with a 1-0 score.
Shortly after the break, Mane should have scored but was denied by a brilliant last-ditch block by Struijk and Kalvin Phillips. However, Liverpool would get the second goal from the following corner. Alexander-Arnold’s cross found Van Dijk, who headed down into a dangerous area and Fabinho fired the ball into the net from close range.
The game took a sour turn moments later when Elliott went down after a coming together with Struijk. Salah immediately signalled towards the bench for the medics to rush on with Elliott clearly in major discomfort.
Although referee Craig Pawson didn’t originally show a red card, a VAR review deemed the challenge from the Leeds man as a serious offence and he was dismissed.
After Mane had missed a few chances, he scored in the closing minutes to wrap up all three points for Liverpool.
Liverpool could have scored a lot of goals but couldnt convert the team’s 30 efforts at goal with Mane having 10 of them. The Reds move up to third on the Premier League table, level on points with Manchester United and Chelsea, while Leeds remain winless this season.
“It’s a bad injury to his ankle,” Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp said about Elliot’s injury. “I heard it was dislocated so we could put it back and he’s now in hospital. We have to wait, obviously. He played an incredible game and is an incredible player who is out.”
“Do I want such a young boy early in his career to have this experience? No, but now it’s the case so we have to be there and we will be there. We’ll play football without him but we will wait for him as well because obviously he’s a top player,” Klopp added.
“I saw the situation and I saw immediately the extent as I could see his foot was not in the right place. That’s why we were shocked.”
Liverpool host AC Milan in the Champions League on Wednesday night then continue their Premier League campaign at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday. Leeds will face Newcastle on Friday in the Premier League.
Chidi Nwoke/Premier League.
