Mohamed Salah shocks with ‘ridiculous’ Djed Spence treatment as Liverpool destroy Spurs
Mohamed Salah stunned a former international with one moment in particular as Liverpool cruised past Tottenham to seal their place in the Carabao Cup final.
The Reds went into the second leg of their semi-final with Spurs on Thursday (6 February) trailing 1-0, after Lucas Bergvall’s hotly-debated goal in the first leg last month.
They were perhaps then lucky not to see Virgil van Dijk punished for an elbow on Richarlison shortly after the game kicked off at Anfield.
Liverpool though would open the scoring on the night before half-time through Cody Gakpo, proving the catalyst for an excellent performance from Arne Slot’s side.
Mohamed Salah stuns Ally McCoist as Liverpool win penalty
Kicking off the second half with the tie all square, Salah produced a moment of magic to help put his side in control of the tie.
As the ball dropped out of the air to the Liverpool talisman inside the opposition half, Salah produced an stunning touch to take Djed Spence out of the game as the full-back tried to close him down.
From their, the Egyptian delivered an outstanding pass into the path of Darwin Nunez in the penalty area, where the Uruguayan was brought by Tottenham goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky.
That led to the hosts being awarded a penalty, although McCoist was keen to hail the work of Salah in getting away from Spence and playing in Nunez in the build-up.
Speaking about the penalty award while on commentary for ITV, former Rangers striker and Scotland international Ally McCoist said (9:15pm): “I need to tell you, the touch from Salah is absolutely ridiculous.
“It’s a penalty all day, but the touch and the pass is absolutely magnificent. He gets there first, does he get a touch on it the goalkeeper? Not so sure, he might.
“But let’s concentrate on the touch, I think it’s Djed Spence who comes to close Salah down and he just flicks it down the wing, so he opens it up for himself.
“Then he plays an absolutely delightful ball into big Nunez, he comes across he’s always favourite to get there first, they’ll have a look at it, not sure they’ll change it.”
Salah then scored the penalty himself, before subsequent goals from Dominik Szboszlai and Van Dijk sealed an emphatic win for Liverpool.
Mohamed Salah contract latest will end months of Liverpool speculation
Football Insider Verdict
There has of course been a huge amount of discussion about Salah’s Liverpool contract situation over the course of this season.
The Egyptian international sees his deal with Liverpool at the end of the current campaign which allows him to leave the club on a free transfer as things stand.
It is performances like this though that show how important it is that he is kept at Anfield if Arne Slot wants to succeed going forward.
Not only did he play a huge part in winning and scoring the penalty, he also produced an excellent assist for Gakpo to score that first goal of the night.
This therefore was another reminder of how big a part Salah plays in the hunt for trophies at Liverpool and they are not going to want to lose that influence.
So after a quiet January transfer window, confirming a new contract for the attacker sooner rather than later would be a good way to lift morale over the club’s off-field business.