'Outstanding' Mohamed Salah's record 150th Liverpool goal sinks Norwich

A place in history beckoned for Norwich City. Instead, Mohamed Salah claimed it, perhaps inevitably, certainly irrepressibly, definitely impressively. For a quarter of an hour, Norwich led at Anfield, where no one has beaten Liverpool in front of a Premier League crowd since 2017, where they have not won since 1994. This would have been one of the shocks of the season.

It wasn’t. There is a normality to Salah scoring at Anfield, but even when he does, it can be remarkable.

He became the 10th player to reach 150 goals for Liverpool, and the second quickest after Roger Hunt. It took him just four-and-a-half years.

“No one could imagine when he scored the first that he could score 149 [more] in such a short period of time,” said Klopp. “Outstanding, a great number.”

The 150th was a goal of direct brilliance. Alisson was the provider. “A great pass but it has travelled 80 yards in the air,” lamented Norwich manager Dean Smith.

Salah darted in behind Norwich’s defence, plucked the ball out of the Anfield sky – “his first touch was insane,” Klopp said – and eased away from goalkeeper Angus Gunn before placing his shot past the backtracking defenders.

It was in keeping with the attitude that has brought Salah so many goals that he could have had a hat-trick; Mathias Normann had denied him with an early goal-line clearance while a trademark curler went narrowly wide and a crisp long-range effort was parried.

Instead, Liverpool had three, with each of their front trio on target. Salah’s goal was the second in three minutes, as a deficit was transformed into an advantage.

A comeback was completed by Luis Diaz, whose maiden Liverpool goal was taken with sufficient elan to suggest it should be the first of many. “He is an