Salah grabs a goal and an assist as Liverpool take a major step towards lifting the Premier League title.
Undaunted by playing at the home of Manchester City, Liverpool produced a performance worthy of champions to move 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League.
A 2-0 win at the Etihad on Sunday extended Liverpool’s lead over second-placed Arsenal and consigned four-time defending champions City to another humbling defeat in an ever-worsening season.
On Wednesday, a 3-1 loss to Real Madrid sent Pep Guardiola’s team crashing out of the Champions League. Back to domestic matters on Sunday, and City were powerless to slow Liverpool’s march towards the title.
Mohamed Salah was again Liverpool’s star performer as he opened the scoring with his 30th goal of the season before setting up Dominik Szoboszlai to double the lead before half-time.
A trip to the Etihad has for so long been the stiffest test of all, but City’s defensive frailties were easily exposed and they also badly missed the presence of the injured Erling Haaland in attack.
Liverpool, by contrast, had their talisman fit and firing as Salah took his staggering tally this season to 25 goals and 16 assists in 27 Premier League appearances.
The Egyptian fired the visitors in front on 14 minutes thanks to a brilliantly executed set-piece routine.
Alexis Mac Allister’s corner was flicked by Szoboszlai into Salah’s path and his shot deflected off Nathan Ake past the despairing dive of Ederson.
At the other end, City’s own Egyptian international showed his ability to finish, but Omar Marmoush had strayed offside before being played in by Phil Foden.
City winger Jeremy Doku was skipping past Trent Alexander-Arnold at will, yet the Belgian consistently failed to deliver a telling cross or shot.
Salah was not so forgiving as he raced onto a long ball over the top and teed up Szoboszlai to wrong-foot Ederson.
The final outcome could have been much more humiliating for City had Liverpool been as accurate on the counterattack after the break.
Curtis Jones had a third goal ruled out by a VAR review for offside after Szoboszlai just failed to time his run through the heart of the City defence.
Ederson was forced into a stunning save from Luis Diaz and only a brilliant last-ditch tackle from Abdukodir Khusanov denied Szoboszlai a second.
Marmoush scored a hat-trick in last weekend’s 4-0 win over Newcastle and remained a lively threat as he flashed another effort across the front of Alisson Becker’s goal.
But City lacked the end product to make nearly 70 percent possession count.
Salah told Sky Sports that it was an “incredible result” for Liverpool.
“It is a very hard place to come and play. They are a tough team with an incredible manager. I’m glad we won the game,” Salah, the player of the match, told Sky Sports.
“It is special to win here, especially when you are in the title race. Now we need to keep calm because sometimes the pressure comes to us.”
Meanwhile, despite an eighth league defeat of the season, Guardiola’s side remain in fourth and will be confident of securing their place in the Champions League next season with a top-five finish likely to be enough.
In Sunday’s earlier Premier League game, Newcastle scored four goals in 11 minutes against Nottingham Forest, but still had to withstand a late fightback to seal a 4-3 win.
A first-half goal spree – including two more for Alexander Isak – gave Newcastle a 4-1 lead at the break at St James’ Park.
But Forest, who led after six minutes, mounted a comeback that provided a nervous finale.
The win moved Newcastle up to fifth and boosted their hopes of a top-four finish and Champions League qualification.