Salah scores 3 in Liverpool’s 5-0 drubbing of Man United
London, Oct 24 (EFE).- Liverpool crushed Manchester United 5-0 before 74,000 fans at Old Trafford stadium on Sunday, with four of the tallies coming in the first half and Mohamed Salah notching a hat trick.
It was a stunning and humiliating defeat for the Manchester squad as Salah clearly proved himself to be the best scorer in the Premier League at present.
The final 30 minutes of play consisted mainly of Liverpool just keeping control of the ball, risking nothing and simply waiting for the final whistle against a Man United squad that just couldn’t get anything going either early or late.
Right from the start, Liverpool was running roughshod over Man U, with Naby Keita scoring first in the 5th minute and Diogo Jota notching a second tally 13 minutes into play.
The Manchester defense was virtually nonexistent, much to coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s chagrin, with the 80 million euros the team paid for the ineffective Harry Maguire looking like a bad investment.
Liverpool easily swept time and again into Man U’s area and it was Salah who delivered the ball to Keita for the first tally. Jota got the team on the board quickly thereafter, and then it was all Salah for the remainder of the match, with his hat-trick tallies coming in the 38th minute, then in first-half stoppage time, and finally just three minutes into second-half play.
The drubbing was the worst for Man U since Tottenham had them on the skids for a 6-1 loss in October 2020, with Man City dealing them another 6-1 defeat in October 2011.
The loss puts the Manchester team in the seventh spot on the Premier League table, eight points behind leader Chelsea, and with the win Liverpool is No. 2, just one point behind the top squad.
Man U substitute Paul Pogba was red-carded by the referee in the 60th minute, leaving the squad a man short for the duration, although by that time the damage had already been done.
Lineups:
Manchester United: De Gea; Shaw, Maguire, Lindelof, Wan-Bissaka; Fred, McTominay, Fernandes (Cavani, m.62); Rashford (Dalot, m.62), Greenwood (Pogba, m.46) and Cristiano.
Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Konate, Robertson; Milner (Jones, m,27), Henderson, Keita (Oxlade-Chamberlain, m.64); Salah, Firmino (Mane, m.78) and Jota.
