Two of the top Premier League stars in Wilfried Zaha and Mohamed Salah lined up against each other in Crystal Palace’s clash with Liverpool.
Palace star Zaha was playing his first game since signing his new long-term contract last week, while last season’s top-scorer Salah was hoping to build on his impressive start to the campaign against West Ham.
Here’s how the two matched up against each other in Liverpool’s 2-0 win at Selhurst Park.
Creativity
Zaha enjoyed some early promising touches as his pace and power looked to set Palace off in attack. His evening got tougher after the dismissal of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, but he was the hosts’ best attacking outlet throughout and he produced the golden chance for Palace to equalise, when he fizzed a ball across goal that Max Meyer could not quite convert.
Salah created both of Liverpool’s goals. First he won the penalty that James Milner converted on the stroke of half-time when he rolled over a clumsy challenge from Mamadou Sakho and took a tumble, with Michael Oliver pointing to the spot. He then set Sadio Mane free deep into added time as the Reds doubled their lead with a counter-attacking goal.#
Goalscoring threat
Unsurprisingly Zaha perhaps looked most likely to score for Palace. He had an effort blocked in the first half from a rebound after Andros Townsend’s superb curling effort had thundered into the crossbar and then he brought a save out of Alisson after cutting in from the back post as Palace chased an equaliser.
Salah was a constant menace for Liverpool and had chances to score plenty. He was set free in the first half by a brilliant pass by Naby Keita but could not control his lobbed finish and then was primed to score when he was brought down by Wan-Bissaka, who was sent off. His effort from the resulting free-kick was also goalbound until being blocked and then he had a header turned over.
