Picture Credit: Twitter
While talking to BT Sport, Liverpool winger Mo Salah recently opened up about his celebratory reaction while playing against the Wolves when Aston Villa was up 2-0 against Manchester City. If this scoreline prevailed in the game, Liverpool would have won the Premier League.
He talked about how he was celebrating the goal and then suddenly fans informed him about Manchester City going 3-2 up. “Everyone in the dressing room was disappointed,” said Salah. “You can see in a picture that my friend sent me when I celebrated after scoring.”
“The way I celebrate was crazy. After I celebrated I asked the fans immediately what the result was and they told me 3-2. I asked the fans because when I went onto the pitch I asked the players behind the bench for the score and they said Villa were 2-0 up,” he continued.
“So Villa were winning, I thought maybe City could score one or two. So in my mind, my goal was going to win the league. In my mind, I was celebrating as we had won the league, until that moment. So we all celebrate, everyone comes to me and I ask the fans ‘what’s the result?’ and they told me 3-2 [to Man City]. But after the game, everyone in the dressing room was very disappointed. I was really disappointed, but this is football and you have to accept it.”
Now Salah and Liverpool are set to face Spanish club Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League final in Paris. The players have been motivated especially Salah who wanted to face Madrid in the final to exact revenge after the Los Blancos defeated them in the 2018 UCL final.
That might be one reason but it's not the only one: Klopp
But Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has downplayed the revenge talk and said, “It's a normal feeling we all get and everyone is motivated by different things -- I have 26 players here who are all motivated by different things and that's completely fine. I have no problem with that.”
“The only issue is if that is the only motivation but that is not the case in most cases -- it's normal that Mo wants to put things right. We didn't forget what happened that time but it's a while ago and we have so many reasons that we should give our absolute everything tomorrow night. That might be one reason but it's not the only one.”