Mohamed Salah admitted his 200th Liverpool goal was a “great feeling” as the Egypt star urged his side to do “something special” in the Premier League title race.

Salah’s landmark strike inspired Liverpool’s fightback from a goal down to win 2-1 at 10-man Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Jurgen Klopp’s side stole the points thanks to Harvey Elliott’s stoppage-time winner.

But it was Salah’s deflected equaliser following Jordan Ayew’s dismissal that sparked Liverpool’s escape act.

Salah’s 14th goal this term made him the fifth player to score 200 for Liverpool in all competitions after Ian Rush (346), Roger Hunt (285), Gordon Hodgson (241) and Billy Liddell (228).

“The most important thing was that we won the game. It’s a great feeling. I’m happy for the record and that we won the game,” Salah said.

Liverpool left Selhurst Park on top of the table, although second-placed Arsenal would reclaim pole position with a win at Aston Villa later on Saturday.

Regardless of Liverpool’s position by the end of the weekend, Salah sees signs they can win the club’s first title since 2020.

“I see the mentality to keep fighting until the end. We keep doing that. We have a new team now because there’s six or seven players,” he said.

“We need to give them advice. They’re learning a lot and they’re really nice. We can do something special this year.”

Saluting the crucial contribution of substitute Elliott, Salah added: “He’s a good kid. he’s learning. I like to push him in the gym.

“He will have a good career. If he wants to speak then just come to me.”

Klopp, who characterised the Reds’ first 75 minutes as “horrendous”, revealed staff had been travelling with a shirt to mark Salah’s milestone moment for the past two weeks.

He was relieved to finally hand it to the 31-year-old in the visitors’ dressing room.

“That’s pretty much the best moment to score it to be 100 per cent honest. It’s an incredible number for a super special player,” he said.

“I don’t know how often he’s saved us with a goal he scored in the right moment. It was a pretty loud reception in the dressing room when I gave him the shirt.

“Now that’s off his shoulders because when you have 199 it is probably different to 198, so now we can go for the next 100.”

On Liverpool’s title chances, Klopp added: “In this period of the year, I said it after the win at Sheffield United, we have to get through this, we need results.

“Seventy five minutes really bad game from us. But nobody is in for the Oscar award, best football game ever, it’s about three points we got them and we are more than happy.”

Source: AFP

Everton submitted their appeal on Friday against a 10-point deduction handed down by the Premier League for breaches of financial sustainability rules.

The Toffees have reacted furiously after being hit with the toughest sporting sanction in Premier League history for breaching loss-making limits in the 2021/22 season.

Clubs in the English top flight are allowed to lose a maximum £105 million ($130 million) over a three-year period after allowable deductions are removed.

An independent commission found that the Merseyside club had lost £124.5 million for the revelant period.

“Everton Football Club has today lodged with the chair of the Premier League’s judicial panel its appeal of the decision by a Premier League Commission to impose a 10-point deduction on the club,” Everton said in a statement

“An appeal board will now be appointed to hear the case.”

The sanction has plummeted Everton into the relegation zone and put their 70-year stay in the English top-flight at risk.

“We were stunned, I think football was stunned, by the outcome of the 10 points so who knows what comes next?” Everton boss Sean Dyche said ahead of Saturday’s trip to Nottingham Forest.

“The way it is sounding from the noise out there it is not just about us, there will be others looked at possibly over time. We will have to wait and see.”

As it stands, Dyche’s men are off the bottom of the table only on goal difference and five points adrift of safety.

Everton supporters staged a mass protest against the Premier League ahead of last weekend’s 3-0 home defeat to Manchester United.

There is scepticism at the severity of such a sanction at the same time that the Premier League is trying to resist the introduction of an independent regulator for football in England.

Manchester Mayor and Everton season-ticket holder Andy Burnham has also raised concerns over the process by which the 10-point penalty was reached.

Burnham criticised the lack of a Premier League sanctions policy before the charges were brought against the club and the attempt to introduce one in August this year, while the Everton case was being held, as “regulatory malpractice.”

Source: AFP

Ousmane Dembele scored his first Paris Saint-Germain goal in stunning fashion as the reigning French champions crushed Monaco 5-2 in Ligue 1 on Friday to cement their lead at the top of the table.

Goncalo Ramos opened the scoring early on for PSG but a howler by home goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma gifted Takumi Minamino the equaliser soon after.

However, Kylian Mbappe’s penalty against his former club restored PSG’s lead and two superb goals in the space of three second-half minutes by Dembele and Vitinha put the game out of sight.

Folarin Balogun pulled another back for Monaco but substitute Randal Kolo Muani put the seal on PSG’s win in stoppage time.

Paris have now won seven and drawn one of their last eight Ligue 1 games and this result moved them four points clear of second-placed Nice, who are in action on Sunday. Monaco remain third but are six points adrift of the leaders.

“The most important thing was the attitude shown by the players after the international break,” said PSG coach Luis Enrique.

“We had one day’s training, for one hour, to prepare for this game.”

The result, which was achieved despite captain Marquinhos and teenage midfield prodigy Warren Zaire-Emery both missing out through injury, was a boost for Luis Enrique’s team ahead of a crucial home Champions League clash with Newcastle United.

The Qatar-backed side could be at real risk of going out of Europe’s elite club competition in the group stage if they fail to win that match on Tuesday.

“Monaco are a team on the same level as us and also aspire to win the league, so it is a good result,” added Luis Enrique.

“We are going into a vital game against Newcastle and the best way to do that is to win, and all the better winning in that way.”

Marquinhos and Zaire-Emery were both injured on international duty and so there were notably starts for PSG here for Nordi Mukiele at left-back and for Fabian Ruiz in central midfield.

Portugal striker Ramos was preferred to Kolo Muani at centre-forward and he opened the scoring in the 18th minute, pouncing to finish after goalkeeper Philipp Koehn spilled a Dembele shot.

Monaco had squandered a great chance to go ahead before that when the unmarked Soungoutou Magassa failed to beat Donnarumma with a header from point-blank range.

Donnarumma howler

The principality side also had a Vanderson goal disallowed for offside but they were gifted an equaliser midway through the first half when Donnarumma played an attempted clearance straight to Minamino and the Japan international pounced to score.

Nevertheless, the Parisians went back in front six minutes before the interval as Magassa caught Dembele in the box, and Mbappe rifled in the resulting penalty for his 14th goal in 12 Ligue 1 appearances this season.

Donnarumma made up for his earlier gaffe with a fine save from Minamino to maintain PSG’s lead into half-time, and they ended any doubt about the outcome with two goals in quick succession in the second half.

It was 3-1 on 70 minutes as Dembele showed great agility to control a quickly-taken free-kick sent over the top by Ruiz, and then advanced into the box to finish emphatically past Koehn.

It was his first goal in 16 appearances since signing for PSG from Barcelona in August.

Two minutes after that it was four as Portugal midfielder Vitinha controlled a pass from Mbappe wide on the left and curled a fine strike into the far corner.

Monaco quickly pulled one back when Minamino sent through USA striker Balogun to finish past Donnarumma, but they conceded again in the sixth added minute as a botched Guillermo Maripan clearance fell to Kolo Muani to score.

The defeat is a blow to Monaco’s hopes of mounting a title challenge and they have now won just once in four outings.

“It is easy to analyse this game today. We conceded four goals that were for me own goals and at this level that is too much,” said Monaco coach Adi Huetter.

“PSG is a top team. When you want to be on top of the table, or in the best three in France, we made too many mistakes.”

Source: AFP

Spanish prosecutors are seeking a nine-year jail term for former Brazil star Dani Alves who is accused of raping a young woman at a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022.

Prosecutors have also demanded the former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain full-back, who has been in jail in Spain since his arrest in January, pay his alleged victim 150,000 euros ($163,500) in compensation, according to a copy of his indictment seen by AFP on Thursday.

A date for his trial had not yet been set. The 40-year-old has maintained that he had consensual sex with his accuser.

“I have a really clear conscience regarding what happened that night in the bathroom of the VIP area of the Sutton nightclub,” he told Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia in an interview published in June, his first since his arrest.

“What happened and what didn’t happen. And what didn’t happen is that I forced this woman to do anything that we did,” he added.

But when the story first broke — and before he was arrested — Alves in a television interview initially denied knowing the woman who filed a police complaint against him on January 2.

“I was dancing and having a good time without invading anyone’s space,” he told Spanish TV channel Antena 3

“I don’t know who this lady is. How could I do that to a woman? No.”

Alves told La Vanguardia that he had lied at first because he was afraid his wife would leave him if he admitted he had been with another woman.

The indictment offers a detailed description of what, according to prosecutors, happened at the upscale Sutton nightclub.

After meeting at the venue, Alves invited the woman to enter a small enclosure which she says she did not know was a toilet.

Once inside, the footballer showed a “violent attitude” towards the woman, who he forced to have intercourse despite her resistance.

Under Spain’s sexual consent law passed last year, the charge of sexual assault takes in a wide array of crimes from online abuse and groping to rape, each with different possible punishments. A case of rape can carry a maximum sentence of 15 years.

At the time of the incident, Alves was on holiday in Barcelona after playing for Brazil at the World Cup in Qatar.

After his arrest, Alves was sacked by his Mexican club Pumas UNAM.

In a highly successful career, Alves won 42 trophies, including three Champions Leagues with Barcelona and two Copa Americas with Brazil.

At last year’s World Cup finals in Qatar he became the oldest player to represent Brazil at football’s showpiece tournament.

Source: AFP