Mo Salah suffers UEFA SNUB despite Champions League heroics

Mo Salah had a special night on Wednesday against Bologna.

The winger scored an extraordinary goal that we have simply come to expect of him in Champions League action, cutting in from the right-hand side and finding the far top corner with a curled effort that no goalkeeper could reach.

And Salah was at the heart of everything Liverpool did on the night. He drifted in to play a delicious tempting cross that the Bologna goalkeeper couldn’t read and that was finished duly by Alexis Mac Allister.

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Just before his goal he had a very similar chance, putting the ball tantalisingly wide. His playing in of Ryan Gravenberch to put a cross across the face of goal that no one could get a toe on won’t show up on the statistics but was essential all the same.

Neither will his pre-assist to Trent for the Darwin Nuñez goal that was (rightly) ruled out for offside, or his little cut back that Dominik Szoboszlai dragged inches wide.

Salah snubbed for UEFA vote

Salah’s dictating of the game clearly wasn’t enough for UEFA’s technical observers, however, as they didn’t deem the performance worthy of inclusion in their Team of the Week.

Instead, Brest’s Abdallah Sima and Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi claimed the wide roles. They no doubt had fantastic evenings, with Sima bagging two goals as the French side demolished former Liverpool assistant Pep Lijnders’s RB Salzburg side 4-0, whilst Adeyemi claimed a hattrick in Dortmund’s 7-1 demolition of Celtic.

It’s hard to argue with three goals, but there is zero doubt that all of Adeyemi’s efforts could have been kept out had Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schemeichel realised he was playing a game of football at the time.

But this is an indication of the level that has come to be expected of Mo Salah. A world-class goal and assist no longer registers as a good evening for the Egyptian. Instead, it’s a surprise if he doesn’t have these returns. 

His unlocking of the entire Bologna defence on multiple occasions and dictating of Liverpool’s attack doesn’t register because he makes the simple look normal. And if Arne Slot’s Liverpool are going to stay at the level they’re currently showing, Salah will always be central to that.

And if UEFA don't recognise it then it's their fault not ours.