EPL: Salah is first player to score in five consecutive season-openers
| NORWICH CITY | LIVERPOOL |
| 0 | 3 |
| (Diogo Jota 26, Roberto Firmino 65, Mohamed Salah 74) |
Mohamed Salah became the first player to score on the opening weekend of five consecutive English Premier League seasons as the Egyptian forward helped Liverpool to a 3-0 win over Norwich City on Sunday morning (Singapore time).
A corner fell his way on the edge of the box 16 minutes from time and the 29-year-old fired powerfully past Tim Krul into the top corner, after Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino had given the Reds a two-goal cushion against the newly promoted side, with Salah providing the assist on both occasions.
Not only did Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp praise Salah for his feat, but he also credited for his unselfishness.
"When you know about that (record) and you set up the first two goals, which is really cool, and after he scored he tried to find Sadio (Mane) twice with a pass, so that was really, really good," said Klopp. "But Mo is Mo and when the competition starts, he goes into the next gear because he's a proper competitive boy. It's good to have him."
Klopp's mood was made even more cheery as Virgil van Dijk made his return from a cruciate ligament injury that derailed the Reds’ title defence last season and the Dutchman looked like his old self as he played the full 90 minutes at Carrow Road on his return to action.
Norwich stormed back to the top flight at the first time of asking by romping to the Championship title last season, but were given a stark reminder of the gulf they have to bridge to compete at the Premier League level.
Teemu Pukki briefly threatened to cause an upset as his powerful shot at the near post was turned behind by Alisson with the best chance of the opening quarter.
But there was little doubt over the final outcome once Jota opened the scoring on 26 minutes.
Salah turned Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross into the Portuguese forward’s path and his shot should have been stopped by Tim Krul rather than trundling through the Dutch international’s legs.
Klopp left the majority of his stars that had played in international tournaments over the summer out as Firmino and Fabinho started on the bench, while there was no place in the squad for Jordan Henderson or Thiago Alcantara.
The Brazilian duo were introduced on the hour mark and it took Firmino just five minutes to make his mark thanks to Salah’s vision.
Salah squared to give his strike partner a simple finish. In the 74th minute, the provider turned scorer and record holder.
Liverpool needed some late heroics from Alisson to secure a clean sheet on van Dijk's return as the Brazilian spread himself to block from Ben Gibson in a goalmouth scramble.
Klopp praised van Dijk, whose presence was sorely missed last season, saying: “You could see all his quality, all his class. It was hard for him to play the 90, he’ll need an ice bath for sure and he’ll have enough time to recover.”
Van Dijk’s season and hopes of leading the Netherlands as captain at Euro 2020 were ended by a reckless challenge from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford in a bad-tempered Merseyside Derby despite the absence of fans last October.
The 30-year-old, who signed a new four-year contract on Friday to celebrate his return to fitness, recalled the hard days following his clash with Pickford.
“Mentally it’s tough. You go from one day being fully fit to the next day you can’t walk, you’re full of medication, full of pain, you can’t sleep,” he added.
“And obviously we were struggling last season with more injuries. More injuries on key positions where we couldn’t play our game the way we want to play.
“In the end, the guys did a fantastic job to come third and we want to build on that.” – AFP
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