Mohamed Salah did not quite get his dream Liverpool send-off, failing to register a goal on his final Premier League outing for the club.
The assist for Curtis Jones was fabulous, even if the VAR check meant the celebration was a little more underwhelming than it should have been. Salah still found ways to influence the game, as he so often has across his remarkable Anfield career.
Why did Curtis Jones not celebrate his goal against Brentford?
Is this confirmation that he's leaving in the summer? Very strange 🤔
He also came close to scoring on a couple of occasions. One moment in particular stood out, with Salah almost adding something he had never managed before in the Premier League.
Mo Salah was inches away from first Premier League free-kick goal
Salah has scored almost every kind of goal imaginable for Liverpool, but a direct free-kick in the Premier League has somehow always escaped him.
In 315 Premier League appearances for the Reds, he has scored 35 penalties, but has never rifled a set-piece in from outside the box. He did score a quite brilliant one against Qarabag earlier this season, but that was a rare assignment.
He came agonisingly close against Brentford, with Salah’s old teammate Caoimhin Kelleher standing in his way.
The former Liverpool goalkeeper was rooted to the spot as Salah bent an effort around the wall from just outside the box. For a second, it looked perfect. Then it slapped the inside of the post and came back out, denying the Egyptian a fairytale ending to his Liverpool career.
It would have been some way to sign off. A first Premier League free-kick goal, at Anfield, in his final league game for Liverpool, would have felt almost too perfect.
Still, the performance Salah produced was nothing short of excellent, even if he could not add that achievement to the long list.
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