Arne Slot hails ‘special’ Liverpool star after Champions League win over Lille
Arne Slot reserved praise for the ‘special’ Mohamed Salah after his record-breaking display in Liverpool’s 2-1 Champions League win over Lille.
Salah opened the scoring for the Reds at Anfield before Lille were reduced to 10 men with Aïssa Mandi shown a second yellow card after the break.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, Lille pulled level after an insinctial finish from Jonathan David, only for substitute Harvey Elliott to grab the winner with a deflected strike in front of a delighted home crowd.
The win continues Liverpool’s perfect record in the Champions League season and confirms their progress to the last-16 of the competition.
But it was also a notable night for Salah’s whose goal saw him become the first Liverpool player to score 50 goals in Europe.
Recognising Salah’s efforts at full-time, Slot said off the Egpytian: ‘Special is the word to describe Mo’s perofmance at this club.
‘The best or maybe there are even better words to use.
‘He’s been outstanding for this club for so many years and still he does it. Today, great goal. If Mo goes on a one-versus-one there’s a serious chance that he’s going to score.’
But Slot was also keen to give credit to his team, adding: ‘This goal we sored probably tells you a lot about why we are top of the league and doing so well.
‘The work-rate from the players who won the ball back before Curtis (Jones) gave the great pass to Mo also shows you why we are doing really well.’
Liverpool’s remarkable campaign in Europe means they are already through to the knockouts with a game to spare and will be a seeded team for the round-of-16 draw.
But Slot insisted that the new format’s unprecitable draw means his side don’t have as much of an advantage as others may think.
‘We are in a new format where some teams are high in the league because they had a lucky draw or some are low because they had a difficult draw,’ he said.
‘So it’s far off to say it’s an advantage to be one or two (in the league) because we still don’t know yet. You might be lucky, you might be very unlucky (with the draw).’