Salah’s magic hands Liverpool a comfortable evening in Amsterdam
Liverpool go through gears at the expense of Ajax to reach round of 16
It was a night that started with fear and anxiety from the Liverpool fans, as the home side controlled the game and started to create chance after chance, but the one moment of quality from Liverpool in that first half, changed their mindset as Salah’s goal (42′) came out of nothing but with a magical finish from the Egyptian, who is now on six Champions League goals for the campaign.
Seven minutes into the second half and the game was over as the visitors added two more goals through Núñez (49′) and Elliott (52′). Ajax found themselves 3 goals down, since then they didn’t manage to create any thing around the box or any threat on Alisson’s goal
The third goal was assisted by Salah, an assist that raised his tally of goal contributions with Liverpool in the Champions League to 51 (39 goals and twelve assists), to become the third player to be directly involved in 50 goals or more for English clubs in the Champions League, after Ryan Giggs (69) and Thierry Henry (52).
Mohamed Salah now has 51 goals to become the best African scorer in history in the Champions League ahead of Didier Drogba (50).
Jürgen Klopp could be relieved after this game, as Liverpool have progressed from the group stage in all six of their Champions League campaigns under the German manager, their longest ever run of consecutive qualifications in the competition.
Klopp spoke to BT Sport after the game: “We had a tough half an hour where Ajax made a lot of pressure. We needed to defend with a lot of passion in these moments, but that’s fine. It’s an away game in the Champions League and you have to get through these phases.”
The German coach added: “In the second half we had a good start, scored two wonderful goals and controlled the game from then on. We played with a diamond, which is new for the boys, but we didn’t want Darwin on the wing, so we played slightly differently. You have to adjust and that’s what we did.”