Mohamed Salah fired Liverpool to victory at the weekend, putting the Reds in good stead ahead of their return leg against Paris Saint-Germain in a few days
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Mohamed Salah of Liverpool looks on prior to the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Southampton FC at Anfield on March 08, 2025
Mohamed Salah ahead of Liverpool's clash against Southampton(Image: Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Mohamed Salah clearly enjoyed Liverpool's win over Southampton. The 32-year-old forward fired Arne Slot's side to glory at Anfield on Saturday afternoon, netting two spot kicks to extend the Reds' lead at the top of the Premier League.
Will Smallbone put the Saints ahead in the final moments of the first half, but Darwin Nunez found an equaliser just after the break. A few minutes later, Liverpool were awarded a penalty after Southampton's goalscorer was adjudged to have fouled the Reds'.
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Salah made no mistake from 12-yards, beating Aaron Ramsdale, who almost managed to get fingertips on the ball. Then, in the dying embers of the clash, the Egypt international doubled his tally for the weekend, scoring yet another penalty.
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After the game, Salah marked the victory with a celebratory post on Instagram, which eclipsed 700,000 likes in under 24 hours. Supporting his teammate, the Liverpool talisman snapped a selfie with Nunez, who's been heavily scrutinised this season having struggled to impress.
Then, clearly delighted with the Reds' victory, Salah uploaded three new pictures – without a caption – from Saturday's match to his Instagram story. Salah posted images of himself walking out in front of the home faithful, in the tunnel and topless – after swapping shirts – on the pitch.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Slot was quizzed on Nunez's performance. The Liverpool boss said: "That's also the life of a No.9 – you go from missing a chance to scoring an important goal to then, all of a sudden, missing a chance again.
"But I think today, especially in the second half, you also saw the work-rate he can bring to the team. But the main thing that happened was in the second half we started to play in a different tempo – not only without the ball but also with the ball.
"The first goal, if you look at Lucho [Luis Diaz], how he takes that one-v-one on, I don't think I can select a clip where that happened in the first half. In the second goal, Ryan Gravenberch pushed up all the way at the 18-yard line to win that ball which led to the foul on Darwin.
"Whereas in the first half every ball that fell out they could just pick up the ball and start to play. The energy in the stadium for the players and the fans in the second half was completely different than the first half."
Then, on whether he had any concerns about Liverpool's intensity ahead of their huge clash against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday, Slot said: "No, because I know these players can come up with completely different energy levels than they came up with today in the first half.
"I think it was maybe the first time this season that I saw this tempo. I think Paris Saint-Germain showed us the right example; they played Lille in incredible intensity, 4-0 up at half-time and then they played against us and that intensity I haven't seen before in a game we've played this season.
"When I look at the game against PSG, we need to go one step up in terms of intensity. But if I compare it with the game today, we need to go three, four, five, six or seven steps up in terms of intensity if we want to have any chance of reaching the next round."