Salah performance against Galatasaray says a lot about him – Slot

Egypt forward Mohamed Salah impressed coach Arne Slot after Liverpool FC booked their place in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in emphatic fashion, defeating Galatasaray 4-0 at Anfield in the second leg of the Round of 16.

The Reds produced a performance of authority and class to emphatically overturn a 1-0 deficit from last week’s first meeting in Istanbul, with Dominik Szoboszlai, Hugo Ekitike, Ryan Gravenberch and Salah getting the goals.

Mohamed Salah missed the pen on purpose to score this banger after 😭 https://t.co/WT5OaZwTnp pic.twitter.com/iJYOH6yfyQ

— 𝐄𝐋𝐓𝐎𝐍 (@e1fcb_) March 18, 2026

Szoboszlai opened the scoring midway through a first half that ended with Salah seeing a penalty saved, before Ekitike and Gravenberch struck in a two-minute spell soon after the restart.

With just over an hour gone, Salah did get on the scoresheet – this after a Wilfried Singo own goal had been disallowed for offside against Jeremie Frimpong – with a trademark curler for his 50th Champions League goal. The Egyptian then hit the crossbar before being substituted due to injury.

Salah showed what he can do on good day

“It says a lot about him that after missing a penalty just before half-time [to score that goal],” Slot told Liverpool website after the game at Anfield which saw them qualify with a 4-1 aggregate victory.

“That can sometimes be hard for an individual or for a team, so compliment to the team for how we came out in the second half because we’ve had a lot of setbacks this season, we’ve had a lot of first or second halves where we’ve created chance after chance after chance without doing justice to how we’ve performed, so not scoring.”

Slot added” “Then, Mo and the team came out in the second half the way they did. He assisted first to Hugo, a great assist, and then scored a trademark goal, which he scored many of in this stadium and for this club, coming inside and finding the top corner.

“That tells you about the mental strength of him, but definitely also of the team because adversity is something we can talk about when it comes to this season.”

Salah moves six clear of Didier Drogba

His half-century strike saw him make history, as he became the first African player to score 50 goals in Europe’s premier competition.

50 – Mohamed Salah has scored his 50th UEFA Champions League goal – he is the first African player to hit that landmark. King. pic.twitter.com/Elnf7hIHoO

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 18, 2026

Already the leading African goalscorer in the competition, he has now moved six goals clear of Didier Drogba in second place.

The Chelsea and Ivory Coast great scored 44 goals in 92 games in Europe, ahead of Samuel Eto’o, who fired in 30 goals across spells at Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Chelsea.

Salah moved even further ahead of former strike partner Sadio Mane, with the Senegalese bagging 27 times in the Champions League, 24 of which came for Liverpool.