BRIGHTON, United Kingdom: Liverpool closed the gap on Premier League leaders Manchester City to three points as Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah sealed a 2-0 win against Brighton on Saturday.
Diaz opened the scoring in the first half and Salah netted with a penalty after the interval at the Amex Stadium.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have won their last eight league games, keeping the pressure on City, with the champions playing at Crystal Palace on Monday.
While City are in fine form, Liverpool’s hot streak is equally impressive.
The Reds have scored 21 goals and conceded just twice in their winning run, while also keeping a third successive league clean sheet for the first time this term.
When Salah converted from the spot, it made Liverpool only the second club to score 2,000 goals in the Premier League, emulating Manchester United.
Salah has reached 20 goals in a Premier League season for the fourth time, with his latest strike coming at just the right time amid his tense contract negotiations.
Klopp said on Friday it is up to Salah whether he signs a new deal, a claim that was followed by the Egypt forward’s agent tweeting a series of laughing emojis just minutes later.
Salah’s current deal runs until the end of next season and he has previously said his future is in Liverpool’s hands and he is not asking for “crazy stuff.”
His long-term value to Liverpool is immense, but of more immediate concern to Klopp will be the knock that saw him replaced by Diogo Jota soon after his first goal in four games.
With a testing trip to Arsenal looming on Wednesday followed by an FA Cup quarter-final at Nottingham Forst, Klopp will hope his star makes a quick recovery.
Liverpool, chasing an unprecedented quadruple, suffered only their third defeat this season against Inter Milan in the Champions League last-16 second leg in midweek.
But Klopp insisted his players are such bad losers that they were certain to mount an immediate response to the Inter loss, which didn’t stop them progressing to the quarter-finals on aggregate in any case.
The German’s assessment proved correct, after a lively Brighton start that saw Neal Maupay drill his strike just wide and Leandro Trossard curl his shot straight at Alisson Becker.
Liverpool responded emphatically and Salah picked out Sadio Mane, whose close-range effort was pushed away by Brighton goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.
Klopp’s team took the lead in the 19th minute when Diaz sprinted onto Joel Matip’s perfectly-weighted pass and bravely headed into the empty net as Sanchez rushed off his line, pole-axing the Colombian with a dangerous high challenge in the process.
Diaz was unable to celebrate as he was writhing on the turf after being caught in the chest by Sanchez’s leg, but the keeper surprisingly escaped a red card following a VAR check.
Diaz’s second goal since signing from Porto in January was almost followed by one for Salah, whose incisive burst ended with a low drive that forced Sanchez to save at his near post.
Trossard shot wastefully over from Maupay’s defense-splitting pass soon after the interval.
Salah almost made him pay for that miss with a deflected effort that looped onto the crossbar.
Liverpool’s luck was out on that occasion but they doubled their lead in the 61st minute.
Naby Keita’s shot was blocked by Yves Bissouma’s arm, conceding a penalty that Salah drove past Sanchez with ease to keep the title race bubbling nicely.
Liverpool sink Brighton to move within three points of Man City
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Liverpool sink Brighton to move within three points of Man City
- Diaz opened the scoring in the first half and Salah netted with a penalty after the interval at the Amex Stadium
- Jurgen Klopp's side have won their last eight league games, keeping the pressure on City
Morocco banish any doubts about ability to host World Cup 2030
- Impressive stadiums, easy transportation links and a well-established tourism infrastructure ensured the 24-team tournament went off without any major hitch and will assuage any doubters about the World Cup in four years’ time
RABAT: Morocco’s successful staging of the Africa Cup of Nations means there should be no skepticism about its ability to co-host the World Cup with Portugal and Spain in 2030, even if Sunday’s final was clouded by a walk-off and defeat for the home team.
Impressive stadiums, easy transportation links and a well-established tourism infrastructure ensured the
24-team tournament went off without any major hitch and will assuage any doubters about the World Cup in four years’ time.
Morocco plans to use six venues in 2030 and five of them were used for the Cup of Nations, providing world-class playing surfaces and a spectacular backdrop.
The Grande Stade in Tangier with a 75,000 capacity is an impressive facility in the northern coastal city, less than an hour’s ferry ride from Spain.
Meanwhile, FIFA President Gianni Infantino condemned "some Senegal players" for the "unacceptable scenes" which overshadowed their victory in the final when they left the pitch in protest at a penalty awarded to Morocco.
African football's showpiece event was marred by most of the Senegal team walking off when, deep into injury time of normal play and with the match locked at 0-0, Morocco were awarded a spot-kick following a VAR check by referee Jean-Jacques Ndala for a challenge on Brahim Diaz.
security personnel at the other end of the stadium, Senegal's players eventually returned to the pitch to see Diaz shoot a soft penalty into the arms of their goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
The match was played at the Stade Moulay Abdellah in the capital Rabat, which has a capacity of 69,500. The attendance for the final was 66,526.
Stadiums in Agadir, Fes and Marrakech were also more than adequate and will now be renovated over the next few years.
But the crowning glory is the proposed 115,000-capacity Stade Hassan II on the outskirts of Casablanca which Morocco hope will be chosen to host the final over Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
In all, Morocco will spend $1.4 billion on the six stadiums. Also planned is extensive investment in airports, with some 10 Moroccan cities already running direct air links to Europe and many budget airlines offering flights to the country.
An extension of Africa’s only high-speed rail service, which already provides a comfortable three-hour ride from Tangier to Casablanca, further south to Agadir and Marrakech is also planned. Morocco hopes all of this will modernize its cities and boost the economy.
On the field, Morocco will hope to launch a credible challenge for a first African World Cup success, although on Sunday they continued their poor return in the Cup of Nations, where their only triumph came 50 years ago.
They surprised with a thrilling run to the last four at the Qatar 2022 World Cup as the first African nation to get that far and will hope for a similar impact at this year’s finals in North America. They are in Group C with Brazil, Scotland and Haiti.
