Last-gasp Salah penalty earns below-par Liverpool victory at Burnley
BURNLEY, England : Mohamed Salah's stoppage-time penalty ensured Liverpool maintained their winning start to the Premier League season with a 1-0 victory at promoted side Burnley on Sunday.
With British record signing Alexander Isak forced to wait for his Liverpool debut having been left out the squad for the trip to Lancashire, the champions struggled to break down a dogged home side in the first half.
After a regroup at the break, the visitors upped the ante in the second half, with Dominik Szoboszlai finally forcing a fine save from Martin Dubravka in the Burnley goal.
Burnley were holding on for a well-earned point with ease, before the ball agonisingly struck substitute Hannibal Mejbri's arm in the penalty area and Salah slotted the spot kick into the net in the 95th minute to break home hearts.
Liverpool are still to really get going this season, requiring a winner in the last 10 minutes of all four of their league victories so far. The goal that clinched an undeserved success at Turf Moor was certainly the most fortunate.
"I know how hard it is to create chances against a team that's with 11 players in their 18-yard box," Liverpool coach Arne Slot said.
"I'm not saying anything negative about them, just trying to explain how difficult it is against a Premier League team, because they are very good players as well."
WAITING FOR ISAK
After one of the longest transfer sagas in Premier League history finally reached its expected conclusion, Liverpool supporters had hoped for their first glimpse of their 125-million-pound ($169.45-million) goal machine.
While Slot said this week that Isak would have to be utilised carefully due to his previous injuries and lack of action so far this season, the Swede was still expected to at least be on the bench at Turf Moor.
But the wait goes on as, without their expensive new forward, Liverpool mustered just one shot on target in the first half, from left-back Andrew Robertson.
Burnley, who conceded the fewest goals in English football league history last term to earn them promotion, otherwise frustrated the champions with ease. Even Lesley Ugochukwu's red card for two bookings in the 84th minute did not seem to fluster them.
Even without Isak, Liverpool still had much attacking talent on the Turf Moor pitch but they just could not find that killer pass.
Salah was especially below par but he made no mistake in the most pressurised moment after Hannibal had stuck up an arm to block Jeremie Frimpong's cross.
"The overriding factor here is that everything we set about to be today, I am immensely proud of the players," Burnley coach Scott Parker said. "The game ends in a real heartbreaking way for us. It is what it is."
The champions' impressive Premier League goalscoring streak stretches to 38 games nonetheless, their longest such run in the competition.
Salah has now scored 188 Premier League goals, moving ahead of Andrew Cole into outright fourth in the top goalscorers chart.
($1 = 0.7377 pounds)
