Salah stars as Liverpool beat Roma at Anfield in Champions League semi first leg

Mohamed Salah scored twice as Liverpool took a big step towards the Champions League final with a 5-2 win over AS Roma.

Mohamed Salah shoots past Roma keeper Alisson Becker for his second goal.

Mohamed Salah scored twice as Liverpool took a big step towards the Champions League final with a 5-2 win over AS Roma in their semi-final, first leg at Anfield.

But two late Roma goals will give the Italians, who fought back from 4-1 down to beat Barcelona in the previous round, some hope of an upset in the return game next Wednesday.

Two superbly taken goals from Salah against his former club gave Juergen Klopp’s side a 2-0 lead at halftime before Liverpool ripped Roma apart after the break. A Sadio Mane goal and then two Roberto Firmino goals put Liverpool 5-0 up and Klopp felt comfortable enough to take off Salah, who had been outstanding.

Yet Edin Dzeko struck for the visitors in the 81st minute and four minutes later Diego Perotti converted a penalty as Roma showed they are still a threat with a late rally that may yet give the Reds a nervous 90 minutes at Stadio Olimpico next week.

And Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco knows it.

“The tie is not over, we have already proven that against Barcelona,” Di Francesco said. “Whoever doesn’t believe in a comeback should stay home. That applies to the fans in the stands as well.”

Klopp said he would have been happier had they not conceded but they will attack against Roma again in the second leg.

“It was a perfect performance for pretty much 80 minutes or so, then we made one defensive mistake and Dzeko made the most of the situation,” Klopp said. “That’s the rules of the competition. Each goal you score helps massively. I would be much more happy if we had won 5-0 or 5-1 but 5-2 is still a fantastic result.

“I could not even have imagined that was possible, so the boys still did outstandingly good.”

Reuters