3 – At Anfield on Tuesday, Mohamed Salah reigned supreme. In the midst of gloom, he chalked historic feats, as he toppled Steven Gerrard to become Liverpool’s all-time top scorer in European competition and also matched Didier Drogba as the top scoring African player in the history of the UEFA Champions League (or European Cup), after scoring in Liverpool’s humiliating defeat by Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League round of 16’s first leg game.
Aside his milestone goal, Salah also made another piece of Liverpool history on the night against Real – his assist to Darwin Nunez for Liverpool’s first goal made him the Liverpool player with the most assist (13) in Champions League annals.
Salah was on remarkable 41 Liverpool goals – all of them coming in the Champions League which already made him Liverpool’s all-time top scorer in the competition – and his 14th minute strike to make it 2-0 for Jurgen Klopp’s side ensured he finally surpassed fellow Reds’ legend Gerrard as the Liverpool player with the most European goals.
His 42nd goal in Europe’s premier club competition – and for that matter European competition – for the Reds came a few minutes after he missed a golden opportunity earlier to beat the record following a brilliant solo run that saw him missed narrowly. That miss was atoned quickly following an error by Courtois, who denied Salah many times on the way to winning the man-of-the-match award in Real Madrid’s victory in last season’s Champions League final at the Stade de France in Paris in May.
At 2-0 by the 15th minute mark, it looked like Salah and Liverpool would go on to score more for a healthy revenge score-line that would put them in a good position for the return leg in Madrid and also beat Drogba’s 44-goal mark but a humiliating collapse by the Reds in front of their home fans, especially in the second half when they shipped in three more goals, ensured that Carlo Ancelotti’s Vinicius Junior-inspired side made a remarkable come-back to win 5-2 and condemn Liverpool to their heaviest home defeat in any European fixture.
Having already beaten other Drogba records as the African with the most goals in a season in the English Premier League, in 2018, top scoring African player in Premier League history, in 2021, and also the top scoring African player in European competition, in 2022, Salah has now not only beaten Gerrard but also matched Drogba and it is just a matter of time for him to topple Ivory Coast’s Chelsea legend record too.
Salah’s remarkable record Champions League and European competition 42-goal tally for Liverpool, for his total of 44 Champions League goals, has come in 65 games in six seasons of being a Red in a period which has seen him become one of the top marks-men in European club football in a brilliant and dangerous attacking combination with Brazilian Roberto Firmino and former mate and fellow African, the Senegalese Sadio Mane, who left Anfield for German giants Bayern Munich last summer.
Majority of Salah’s goals have inspired Liverpool to become a major force in Europe once again in a truly successful and satisfactory period that has seen the Reds played in three UEFA Champions League finals in five seasons, losing in 2018 and last year, both to Real Madrid, and winning in 2019, ironically in Madrid, at the home of Atletico, against fellow English side Tottenham Hotspur, among other feats.
In that final 2-0 victory at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium against Spurs, the Egyptian king – three-time English Premier League top scorer and also holder of Liverpool’s record of most European goals in a season (with 11 along with Firmino) – opened the scoring with a second minute penalty to not only become one of the five Africans – together with Algeria’s Rabah Madger, Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, Drogba and Mane – to score in a European Cup final but also joined the list of African winners in the prestigious competition.
Credit: Aristo Dotse
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