Stoke City vs Liverpool. Premier League.
Bet365 StadiumAttendance29,423.
Thursday 30 November 2017 06:25, UK
Substitute Mohamed Salah scored twice as Liverpool comfortably beat Stoke 3-0 at the bet365 Stadium in the Premier League on Wednesday.
Sadio Mane gave Liverpool the lead (17) with a neat finish from Dominic Solanke's set-up, but later in the first half Stoke felt Simon Mignolet should have been sent off rather than booked for taking out Mame Biram Diouf on the edge of the box.
Stoke had two clear chances to equalise through former Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen in the second half, but Liverpool rounded off the win through substitute Salah's fine volley (77) and neat finish (83) after coming on in the 67th minute.
The result means Liverpool are up to fifth in the Premier League, while Stoke go down to 16th, three points clear of the drop zone.
Liverpool scored with the first real chance of the game as Joe Gomez's centre at the byline fell to Solanke, who played in Mane to apply the finish over Lee Grant from six yards. Stoke felt the ball from Gomez had gone out of play, but replays show the whole ball was not over the line.
Solanke missed a chance to make it 2-0, forcing a save out of Grant from just inside the box in space, before a controversial moment late in the half.
After rushing out of his box for a 50/50 with Diouf, Mignolet caught the Stoke man without playing the ball on the edge, but referee Martin Atkinson showed a booking rather than a red, despite the fact Diouf was denied a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Mane came close to a second moments later, hitting the post after beating the Stoke offside trap, before Allen missed two fine chances to equalise after the break from inside the box.
Premier League top scorer Salah came on with 23 minutes remaining and made an instant impact, volleying home from 12 yards after Mane's fine work on the right byline.
Salah got his second moments later, capitalising on Erik Pieters' mistake to slot under Grant, his 17th goals in all competitions this season and extending Liverpool's unbeaten run to seven.
After resting some star names against Chelsea on Saturday, Jurgen Klopp made more changes as Salah was named on the bench, but that didn't stop the Egyptian adding to his tally for the season.
Full of energy, Salah made an instant impact with his fine, controlled volley for 2-0, and there was absolutely no doubt where the ball was heading when he went through on goal late on for the third.
Salah has arguably been the signing of the season in the Premier League, and he'll be key as Liverpool look for domestic and European success.
Mark Hughes: "Diouf has nicked the ball and the keeper has wiped him out and should have been sent off clearly. At that point if we had got that, even if we had scored and they had remained at 11, we still would have been back in the game. That was a huge moment for us.
"The least we should have had was a clear run on goal and in my view the keeper should have been sent off and they should have been down to 10 men. Given the way we were playing at the point I think we would have gone on to make it really difficult for them. As it was we were constantly chasing the game.
Jurgen Klopp: "I don't think [Mignolet should have been sent off]. I was pretty sure in that moment that it was a yellow card, it was outside of the 18-yard box, and I saw two players in our shirt in a better position than the goalscorer, that's how it looked for me. I don't think that it looked like that for any of the Stoke fans."
Liverpool now go to Brighton on Saturday in the Premier League, while Stoke host Swansea, on the same day.
