Salah scores 50th European goal as Liverpool beat 10-man Lille
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah, centre, celebrates his 50th European goal with his teammates Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones
MO Salah, the man rapidly dominating what has the potential to be a season for the ages at Anfield, scored his 50th European goal for Liverpool as Arne Slot’s side remained on course to win the Champions League group.
A seventh win in as many games was an impressive feat against the in-form French side, even if the visitors were reduced to ten men and there was a large slice of luck about Harvey Elliott’s deflected winner.
After Lille had been reduced to ten men, through the dismissal of Aissa Mandi, their prolific striker Jonathan David equalised two minutes later, his 62nd minute effort the first goal Liverpool had conceded in 599 minutes of Champions League play this season.
It came from Gabriel Gudmunddson’s cross which picked out Hakar Arnar Haraldsson for a shot which was blocked by Jarell Quansah but fell for David to sweep into the roof of the Liverpool net.
But just five minutes later, Liverpool were back in front as David headed a Kostas Tsimikas to the edge of the area where substitute Elliott drove home a shot the diverted off Ngal’Ayel Mukau and flew into the Lille goal.
If this was a case of the proverbial irresistible force meeting an unmovable object - and few teams across Europe could boast Lille’s 21-game unbeaten run coming into Anfield - then the visitors set out their stall early.
Thirty seconds, early, to be precise. That was the length of time it took full-back Gundmundsson to bully Conor Bradley off the ball, surge forward and send a powerful shot just wide. It looked a safe bet that, had it been on target, the strike would have flown in.
There was certainly enough in the opening exchanges to suggest how and why Lille were going to challenge Liverpool’s perfect Champions League record, the only one among the 36 teams in the group.
But this is a Liverpool team that is an impressive leader in both England and Europe for a reason and they quickly settled into a rhythm.
Dominik Szoboszlai helped carve out Salah’s first chance of the night on seven minutes, his pass helping the striker create space before lofting a shot straight at Lucas Chevalier.
The Lille breaks kept coming, Alexsandro finding Remy Cabella on a particularly promising one, but Liverpool’s defence was alert and, as they had on other occasions, quick to get back in numbers.
That was indicative of a Liverpool team that had not conceded a goal in Europe since three minutes into their opening game in mid-September, in a victory at Milan, with five clean sheets following that 3-1 win.
And, as long as the Reds had Salah on call, there was always hope of him adding to the two goals and four assists he had already produced in this competition this season.
Salah was on the receiving end of a good pass, on the half hour, when Luis Diaz sprinted away down the left and Salah just mis-connected with it, with a difficult attempted volley on the six-yard line.
It was, one felt, not the last time Salah would be presented with the chance to open the scoring and, sure enough, four minutes later he fired them in front.
The goal actually came from deep inside the Liverpool half, and Kostas Tsimikas’s crunching tackle on David, which allowed Curtis Jones to pick up the pieces, raise his head and send through a magnificently-judged through ball for Salah to chase.
The Egyptian reached the edge of the area before lifting the perfect finish over the on-rushing Chevalier for his half century of European goals for the club, despite Lille’s complaints of a foul by Tsimikas.
There might have been another before the break, sparked by Luis Diaz’s excellent pass out of defence, but Alexsandro made a timely defensive header on this occasion to clear Salah’s dangerous cross.
And, on the stroke of half-time, Salah really should have doubled the lead, from an incredible Diaz pass that flew almost half the length of the field and allowed the Egyptian to race away from Gudmundsson and shoot just wide.
The goal seemed to have knocked Lille out of their confident stride, and continued to do so after the break, with Salah soon shooting wide from a good opening and Quansah heading over a difficult chance from a Tsimikas free-kick.
Worse was to follow for the French on the hour when Mandi, booked in the first half, cynically tripped Diaz as he chased through and was shown a second yellow, a dismissal that might have been doubly punished if Alexis Mac Allister had kept down his header from the Tsimikas free-kick that followed.
Predictably, after regaining the lead, Liverpool’s game management against ten men was impressive and Salah was denied by Chevalier’s outstretched leg before the keeper also saved well from Federico Chiesa.
Alisson 6; Bradley 5 (Alexander-Arnold 86), Quansah 7, Van Dijk 6, Tsimikas 6; Gravenberch 6 (Elliott 46, 6), Jones 7 (Mac Allister 46, 6); Salah 7, Szoboszlai 7 (Endo 63, 6), Diaz 8 (Chiesa 785, 5); Nunez 7.
Jaros, Kelleher, Konate, Gakpo, Robertson, Danns, Morton.
Chevalier 7; Mandi 5, Diakite 7, Alexsandro 7, Gudmundsson 8 (Ismaily 74, 5); Andre 6, Mukau 5 (Bouaddi 74, 5); Cabella 7 (Sahraoui 63, 5), Haraldsson 6, Bakker 6 (Meunier 63, 5); David 6.
Mannone, Caillard, Gomes, Bayo, Mbappe, Cossier.
Felix Zwayer (Germany) 6.
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