Mohamed Salah made history from the bench when he returned to Liverpool in a comfortable 2-0 win over Brighton, while Hugo Ekitike’s brace lifted the champions to sixth in the Premier League.
Salah, who was brought back into the squad after talks with head coach Arne Slott, was introduced earlier than expected, replacing the injured Joe Gomez after 26 minutes, and was greeted with huge cheers from Anfield, any ill feelings about his Leeds interview forgotten.
Ekitike scored twice for the second league game in a row, but this game will be remembered for the Egyptian forward’s impressive display, in his final appearance for Liverpool ahead of the AFCON.
The Liverpool legend finished the game with an assist that takes him to an all-time record of 277 goals (188 goals, 89 assists) for one Premier League club, surpassing Wayne Rooney’s total for Manchester United.
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Mohamed Salah returns to play for Liverpool against Brighton.
Salah headed Ekitiike’s second-half corner, ending a three-game league goalless streak, and almost ended a tense week in perfect fashion, later firing home Federico Chiesa’s cross.
Liverpool were already in front when Salah came on after Ekitike scored the fastest goal of the Premier League season with just 46 seconds on the clock, thanks to Yankouba Minteh’s poor clearance which Gomez headed on to deny the Frenchman.
Hugo Ekitike celebrates after scoring his second goal of the game against Brighton
Hugo Ekitike pounces to give Liverpool a 2-0 lead against Brighton
Brighton’s Diego Gomez failed to convert two great chances to level the sides on the break and was lucky to still be on the pitch for the second, a keeper at the back post as he survived a VAR check for Florian Wirz’s high challenge.
Liverpool made a potentially difficult afternoon look easy as they extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to five games to overtake Brighton in the table and drop to ninth after a third game without a win.
Salah stopped after the game to praise the home fans, chanting his name all afternoon, but said little about whether this could be his farewell game. The Liverpool icon has bid farewell for now and his future is expected to dominate the coming weeks.
Slot: Easy decision to put Salah in the team
Liverpool boss Arne Slott to false:
“He was a threat. The first ball he touched he almost assisted Mac Allister who squared it, maybe that was a chance for him to shoot as well.”
“He was constantly involved in the threat we had which was nice to see but it was no surprise as he has done it many times in a Liverpool shirt.
“It was an easy decision to put him on the team. I’ve said many times before, what’s said between the two of us, for me, stays between the two of us.”
“He’s back in the team again and we needed him because he was the first substitute I made. He assisted the 2-0 from a corner, which is nice for us because we’ve been on the wrong side of the set-piece battle so many times. Today we scored one goal, we didn’t concede and we added to our win.
“He’s going to the AFCON with Egypt now. That means we’re another player missing and we didn’t have much today already. We knew before the start of the season that he’d be leaving and hopefully one or two players will return through injury. Tottenham are away next week, which is a challenge in itself.”