Mohamed Salah makes major half-time change after missed penalty before inspiring Liverpool to victory

Published: 23:00, 1 Jan 2024Updated: 23:00, 1 Jan 2024Mohamed Salah admitted he had to make a drastic change to his attire after missing a penalty against Newcastle on Monday night.

Salah finished the match with two goals in a 4-2 win over Newcastle at Anfield that saw Liverpool go three points clear at the top of the Premier League table.

Salah started the match with yellow boots
But he only found the back of the net after missing from the spot earlier in the contest – a turgid effort in the first half that was easily saved by Martin Dubravka.

It saw the Egypt international change his boots from yellow to blue at half-time, something he admitted to after the match.

Speaking about his boots, he told Sky Sport: “The other ones, I missed the pen with, I just trained with it yesterday.

“It’s not superstitious because you play with many boots, but when I felt like it was going to play in my head it was like, OK, I’ll change the boots.

“It’s silly, but I didn’t like to have that [thought] in the second half, ‘this one I didn’t score with’… I changed, made my mind calm and focused on the game.”

Whatever he tried seemed to work a treat as Salah looked unplayable after the break.

He opened the scoring minutes after the break to give Liverpool the lead before Alexander Isak netted an equaliser.

But that did little to stop the Reds machine, who continued their dominance when Curtis Jones finished off a brilliant team move, helped by Salah’s pass to Diogo Jota.

Salah had missed a penalty in the first half

Salah changed his boots and it worked a treatCredit: Getty
Salah was then instrumental for the third Liverpool goal – pulling out a beautiful outside-of-the-boot cross for Cody Gakpo to tuck home.

And then the crowning piece, another chance to score from the penalty spot, albeit in controversial circumstances.

This time, the 31-year-old made no mistake as he redeemed his earlier poor effort to put Liverpool out of sight.

It was quite the performance to put on as he prepares to leave Merseyside for the Ivory Coast with Egypt for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Salah added: “We missed a lot of chances, I missed a pen. At half-time I was like, ‘OK, are you going to leave for the national team with that performance? Not really.’

“I had to really focus and step up to make a difference and I managed to do so.”