Liverpool 6-1 Sparta Prague (Mar 14, 2024) Game Analysis

Mohamed Salah made historical past for Liverpool as Jurgen Klopp’s aspect hammered Sparta Prague 6-1 on Thursday to storm into the Europa League quarterfinals 11-2 on mixture.

After successful 5-1 the opening leg of their round-of-16 tie in Prague, Liverpool scored 4 within the opening 14 minutes at Anfield as Sparta had no reply to the house aspect’s excessive strain.

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Salah seized the ball on the fitting of the realm earlier than taking pictures contained in the far submit over Sparta goalkeeper Peter Vindahl Jensen for his twentieth objective of the season, changing into the primary Liverpool participant to attain at the very least 20 targets in seven straight seasons.

The Egyptian star additionally had three assists to make this his sixth profession season with 20 targets and 10 assists in all competitions. Lionel Messi (13), Luis Suárez (9) and Cristiano Ronaldo (9) are the one males’s gamers with extra such seasons within the twenty first century.

Salah, who injured his hamstring with Egypt on the Africa Cup of Nations in January, began after having been used instead in each the primary leg in Prague and a 1-1 draw with Manchester City on Sunday.

“It was on us to decide how good a game it would be and obviously we enjoyed playing football, some fantastic goals as well early on,” Liverpool supervisor Jurgen Klopp advised TNT Sports. “From that point on it becomes a difficult game, like how do you keep going?” 

Darwin Núñez opened the rout with a medical low end seven minutes into the sport after scoring two in Prague.

A minute later, Salah received the ball on the sting of the field to feed 19-year-old Bobby Clark to attain his first senior objective for Liverpool to leap 2-0 up.

Salah then scored earlier than discovering Cody Gakpo with a cross to make it 4-0.

Dominik Szoboszlai made it 5-1 within the second half with a deflected shot earlier than Gakpo added his second.

Veljko Birmancevic had the lone objective for Sparta.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.