Salah stars in Liverpool’s success against Brighton

London

Mohamed Salah scored twice as champion Liverpool moved on to 92 points with a 3-1 win at Brighton and Hove Albion in the Premier League on Wednesday.

The victory kept Liverpool on target to secure a record PL points tally, with Jurgen Klopp’s side needing nine from its remaining four games to beat the mark set by Manchester City, which amassed 100 points in 2017-18.

Liverpool was 2-0 up within eight minutes after host Brighton paid heavily for sloppy work in its attempt to play out from the back. Midfielder Naby Keita robbed Davy Propper and  slipped the ball to Salah, who opened the scoring in the sixth minute.

Two minutes later, Brighton was caught out again by Liverpool’s pressing, this time Salah setting up Jordan Henderson, who finished with a perfect drive. Graham Potter’s team pulled a goal back on the stroke of half-time with Leandro Trossard sweeping home a first-time shot after a pinpoint cross from Tariq Lamptey.

Brighton, which recovered well from its poor start, should have drawn level on the hour-mark when the ball fell to an unattended Dan Burn at the back post. But, the tall full-back failed to test Alisson as he came up with a poor connection.

Egyptian Salah wrapped up the win, Liverpool’s 30th in its 34th game of the season, with a superbly angled near post header from an in-swinging Andy Robertson corner.

Following the result, Brighton is 15th on the table with 36 points from 34 matches. Earlier in the day, second-placed Manchester City eased past Newcastle United with a 5-0 success.

Barcelona wins as Espanyol gets relegated from La Liga

Barcelona kept up its pursuit of table-topper Real Madrid in the La Liga title race by beating city rival Espanyol 1-0 at home on Wednesday, also condemning its neighbour to relegation from the top flight.

Luis Suarez struck the only goal of the game in the 56th minute. He lashed a loose ball into the net for his 195th goal with Barcelona, which took him past Hungarian Laszlo Kubala as the club’s third top scorer of all time. The goal came shortly after both sides had been reduced to 10 men in a frantic start to the second half.

Barcelona, chasing a third consecutive Spanish league title, is now on 76 points after 35 games while Espanyol was relegated for the first time since winning promotion back to La Liga in 1994. The latter is bottom of the table on 24 points after 35 games.

RESULTS:

PREMIER LEAGUE: Brighton & Hove Albion 1 lost to Liverpool 3; Manchester City 5 beat Newcastle United 0; Sheffield United 1 beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 0; West Ham United 0 lost to Burnley 1.

LA LIGA: Barcelona 1 beat Espanyol 0; Getafe 1 lost to Villarreal 3; Real Betis 3 beat Osasuna 0.

SERIE A: Atalanta 2 beat Sampdoria 0; Bologna 1 lost to Sassuolo 2; Roma 2 beat Parma 1; Torino 3 beat Brescia 1; Fiorentina 0 drew with Cagliari 0; Genoa 1 lost to Napoli 2.