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LIVERPOOL, England — Mohamed Salah played like a man who had just missed out on World Cup qualification as Liverpool made it 10 successive Premier League victories with a 2-0 win against Watford at Anfield, but as the Egypt forward struggled to shake off his Qatar 2022 disappointment, Diogo Jota showed once again that he can step up when his more celebrated teammates fail to deliver.
Jota’s first-half header from Joe Gomez’s cross — his fourth headed goal this season — gave Jurgen Klopp’s team the lead in a hard-earned victory before the Portugal international won a penalty (awarded following the intervention of VAR) on 86 minutes after being fouled by Juraj Kucka. Fabinho’s successful spot-kick sealed Liverpool’s 2-0 victory.
By that stage, Salah was watching from the substitutes’ bench having been replaced by Sadio Mane on 69 minutes. Four days earlier, Salah had watched his Anfield strike partner score the decisive spot-kick as Senegal beat Egypt on penalties to win their World Cup playoff and qualify for Qatar. To compound Salah’s misery, he had missed his own penalty in the shootout.
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Klopp confirmed before the Watford game that Mane asked Liverpool to cancel their traditional ceremony of congratulating players on qualifying for the World Cup out of respect for Salah. “They are good boys, good humans,” the manager said. “They would both consider each other as friends.”
Less than two months ago, Mane had won the Africa Cup of Nations for Senegal with another penalty shoot-out winner against Egypt and Klopp said in the days after that game that Salah was struggling to deal with the disappointment, saying it was “really hard” for the 29-year-old. To suffer a similar heavy blow so soon afterwards — one which may have denied Salah his final chance to play at the World Cup after his Russia 2018 campaign was marred by the after-effects of a shoulder injury — will undoubtedly…
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Source : espn
