Mohamed Salah celebrates his penalty against Girona - Photo Courtyesy Liverpool Media.
Egypt international Mohamed Salah continued with his fine run of form after notching to help Liverpool defeat Girona 1-0 and maintain their perfect start to the group phase of the UEFA Champions League.
Already guaranteed a spot in the knockout rounds, the win put the Anfield outfit on the brink of a definite top-eight finish, which would see them progress straight to the last 16 and bypass the play-offs.
The only goal of the game came in 63rd minute when Salah stepped up to convert from the penalty spot. Donny van de Beek brought down Luis Diaz inside the dangerzone and after consulting with VAR the penalty was awarded.
Salah then took the chance with both hands and drilled the resultant effort past Gazzaniga to break the deadlock. Speaking after the game, man of the match Andy Robertson praised Salah for stepping up when needed most by Liverpool.
“Yeah, scoring goals. I think he’s played better than he did tonight – most of us have – but when we need him the most he steps up. He’s so good from the penalty spot, we never doubt him when we get the penalties," explained Robertson.
“Luckily, he put it away. It was just about seeing out the game then and luckily, we limited their chances. He’s the match-winner again.”
Liverpool manager Arne Slot sung the praise of Salah for rescuing the team again: “The good thing is that we have many players that can score for us – today Mo again. I would have loved to see Darwin score because I think every striker wants to score [and] needs goals – that's why I kept him in for quite a long time. He was a threat but unfortunately he couldn't score.
“Yes, Alisson made a lot of saves, but I think if you make highlights of this game we will all see a few chances that we had as well, which is normal. What is not normal is that we concede so many chances.”
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