Ten minutes before half-time on a wild night of Champions Leaguefootball Mohamed Salah did perhaps the best thing so far of the many wonderful things contained in his dreamy first Liverpool season.
By that stage Anfield was in one of those periods of constant uproar, jiggled and tickled and dragged into a state of intoxication as Liverpool battered away at Roma without drawing breath. It is no secret this Liverpool team play in surges, moments when the day seems to turn a shade of deep red and when the front three become a whirl of malevolent action.
But this was something new. Liverpool and Salah did not just accelerate away from Roma, they eviscerated them, almost but not quite killing a semi-final that remains, somehow, in the balance.
Liverpool were relentless in those periods, shaking and ragging Roma in their jaws like a terrier with an old leather slipper. Of five Liverpool goals in the space of 35 minutes Salah scored two and provided assists for Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mané.
Roma pulled back two late goals with Salah off the pitch to make it 5-2 and raise memories of the way they came back at home to knock out Barcelona. Another 3-0 win would do the job this time too. But then, Roma will also have to face Salah again, with bruises still fresh from a beating that came in high-speed waves.
Salah was that rare thing, an athlete at the top of his profession finding new heights, new levels. There may be a more breathtakingly brilliant attacking performance in Europe this season but, given the game and the stage, there has not been one yet.
For the PFA Premier League’s player of the year this is elite territory, the kind of performance that ends up on stage in Zurich draped in a terrible tuxedo holding a golden bauble and beaming with that rare glaze of sporting ultimacy.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
