On Wednesday, Liverpool’s Sadio Mane scored a sublime assist for Mohamed Salah. The game was against Burnley and the move is shown below:
The “Liverpool F.C.” is a professional football club that plays in the English Premier League. The move that led to Sadio Mane’s sublime assist for Mohamed Salah was a counter-attack from Liverpool F.C., during the match against Roma on November 24th, 2018. Read more in detail here: liverpool fc.
After a 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United at Anfield on Tuesday, Liverpool reclaimed top spot in the Premier League for the first time since September.
The Reds are now unbeaten in 13 league games as they compete in the title race with Manchester City, over whom they took a two-point lead ahead of the reigning champions’ game in hand against Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday.
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United entered at Anfield steeped in inconsistency, having won only twice in their previous nine games, and things swiftly went south for them when Luis Diaz put the hosts ahead after just five minutes.
Salah extended Liverpool’s lead in the 26th minute by putting the finishing touches on a beautiful flowing team move that included 25 smooth passes transferred seamlessly amongst 10 Liverpool players (including goalkeeper Alisson) over the span of a hypnotic minute or two.
Virgil van Dijk, the centre-back, was the only player not directly engaged in the run of play that led to the goal that highlighted the current talent gap between these two great rivals. We’ll go down the play, pass by pass, in this section.
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1. Diaz initiated the play by intercepting a defensive headed clearance from Victor Lindelof, one of three Manchester United centre-backs who interim coach Ralf Rangnick started the game with in the hopes of containing Liverpool’s offensive threat. Diaz then advanced to the left touchline and sent a straightforward ball infield to Fabinho’s feet.
2. Fabinho spun through 180 degrees with the ball in his hands around 30 yards from the United goal before looking up and laying a short pass back to midfield partner Thiago Alcantara.
3. Thiago sped a first-time right-footed ball into a pocket of space he’d found on the left flank, where Andy Robertson was waiting in anticipation at an advanced position.
4. Under minor pressure, Robertson took a few of touches to regain his composure and surveyed the field for possibilities before electing to just roll the ball back to Thiago, who had chased down his first pass to shorten the space between the two players.
5. With Marcus Rashford closing in on him, Thiago effectively wriggled clear of the press by putting his body between the ball and the United striker. To ease the strain, he then delivered a straightforward ball all the way back to goalkeeper Alisson.
6-7. In the second minute, Alisson calmly eluded Bruno Fernandes with the ball at his feet inside his own penalty area, setting the tone for the game. The goalkeeper got the ball moving again by exchanging a fast one-two with centre-back Joel Matip on the right-hand side of his penalty area after taking a minute to examine his options further upfield.
8-9. Matip pivoted and hastily carried the ball farther out to the right wing with a short pass to Trent Alexander-Arnold after Allisson handed it back to him.
10-11-12. Alexander-Arnold then got behind Anthony Elanga’s pressure by opening up his body and delivering a quick ball up the touchline to Fabinho. The Brazilian followed suit, sliding the ball over the halfway line and into the path of Mohamed Salah, who smacked the ball into Jordan Henderson’s grasp before pulling free and racing up the wing.
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13-14. Rather than taking advantage of Salah’s attacking move, Henderson went inside and completely changed the game with a long, lofted pass back out to Robertson at left-back. The Scotland defender, who, like Henderson, Fabinho, and Diaz, completed more than 90% of his passes in the final third during the game, kept things simple with a clean ball to Thiago close.
15. Thiago took a few steps toward the center area and glanced up, drifting a gorgeous accurate ball out wide that landed perfectly at Salah’s feet, who was still stationed wide on the right. Thiago is prospering after a rocky start to his Liverpool career, and he was named man-of-the-match versus United. The Spain midfielder controlled the strings and received more touches of the ball (132) than any other player on the field, finishing his 80-minute shift with a 95.6 percent pass completion rate out of 113 attempts.
16. Salah received Thiago’s weighted ball and took a few of steps in from the touchline before reversing the play with a sneaky backheeled pass down the line to Henderson, who had sprinted past the Egyptian to occupy a wide position in the final third.
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17-18-19-20-21. As the play drifted back toward the halfway line, Henderson exchanged a simple one-two with Alexander-Arnold before doing the same with Fabinho and then concluding his role in the move with a lengthier pass to find Matip in space.
22-23. Matip then sprinted forward many yards with the ball at his feet before completing a quick exchange of passes with Diaz, who had drawn two defenders to him on the outside of the United box with his back to goal.
24. Diaz’s return pass was fizzed back to Matip, who blasted a low, angled pass to Sadio Mane, who had snuck into a pocket of space beside Diaz just outside the area.
25. Mane curled a brilliant first-time ball around the corner and over the top of United’s defensive line, looping his pass over Harry Maguire’s head and perfectly into the path of Salah, who had surged past Diogo Dalot and into the box, without even glancing up. Salah then took a quick touch, held off the defender, and slipped a low finish past David de Gea.
Salah’s goal snapped an eight-match goalless stretch for both club and country, his worst drought since March 2019, when he went eight games without a goal. In the closing moments, he scored his second and Liverpool’s fourth goals, bringing his total versus United to eight goals in his past four outings.
Mane then got himself on the books with Liverpool’s third goal, making it the 32nd time he and Salah have scored in the same Premier League game – more than any other combo in the league’s history.
In January, Liverpool beat Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur to the signing of Diaz from Porto, and he has settled in well with the rest of Jurgen Klopp’s squad. The 25-year-old, as well as Mane and Salah, each scored and assisted on at least one goal.
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United only had one attempt on goal, with half-time replacement Jadon Sancho’s weak effort from range early in the second half being easily collected by Alisson.
In terms of statistics, Fernandes was United’s most engaged player. Apart from Diaz, the midfielder had just 61 touches of the ball and finished the evening with a successful completion percentage of only 71.1 percent from 45 passes attempted.
As if to emphasize the widening gap between the two teams, Liverpool’s current and astonishingly powerful eight-game undefeated Premier League record versus United is their longest since 1927, the year before the roof above The Kop at Anfield was erected.
While Liverpool continues to pursue a historic Quadruple by winning the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League to go with their Carabao Cup victory in February, United is still in contention for a top-four finish. But, if the second goal at Anfield is any indication, it will be a long time before they can even consider competing on the same level as Liverpool.
ESPN Stats & Information contributed to this report
The “sadio mané” is a move that led to Mohamed Salah’s sublime assist for Sadio Mane. It was the first time in Liverpool history that they scored three goals in a single game.
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