Leeds 1-6 Liverpool: Mo Salah and Diogo Jota score a brace each

Leeds 1-6 Liverpool: Mo Salah and Diogo Jota score a brace each alongside goals from Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez to keep Reds’ slim European hopes alive – and worsen hosts’ relegation worries

• Liverpool pounced on a series of defensive errors from Leeds at Elland Road
• Salah’s brace means he has scored the most left-footed Premier League goals
• Diogo Jota scored his first goals in 33 games as Luis Diaz returned from injury 

Elland Road can be a ferocious, bear pit of a stadium, but not when it is half empty. On Monday the locals were heading for the exit with 20 minutes to go after seeing their team provide another shocking, stunning example of relegation football.

The ones who stayed – and there were many – were still cheering their team on at the end, but Javi Gracia’s side did not deserve it. 

This was Leeds’ second home shellacking in a fortnight. It was 5-1 against Crystal Palace earlier this month and here it was a goal worse. If they continue to play as fecklessly as this then they will setting records by the season’s end and not in a good way.

Leeds had reason to complain in the first half. Liverpool’s opening goal — started and created by Trent Alexander-Arnold and finished by Cody Gakpo — should have been ruled out for handball. But nobody understands the rules any more so it was not.

The problem is that it is hard to carry a sense of injustice very far when you play like this. 

Mo Salah netted a brace for Liverpool as they ran riot at Elland Road on Monday evening

Cody Gakpo netted the opener as he tapped in Trent Alexander-Arnold’s low cross into the box

Diogo Jota (right) scored two goals himself, his first strikes in 33 games in all competitions

MATCH FACTS 

Leeds: Meslier, Kristensen, Koch, Struijk, Firpo, McKennie, Roca, Harrison (Gnonto 77), Aaronson (Rutter 66), Sinisterra (Forshaw 77), Rodrigo (Summerville 66).

Subs not used: Robles, Ayling, Cooper, Wober, Greenwood.

Goals: Sinisterra.

Manager: Javi Gracia.

Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Roberton, Henderson (Milner 81), Fabinho (Thiago 85), Jones, Salah (Nunez 81), Gakpo (Diaz 81), Jota (Firmino 82).

Subs not used: Kelleher, Elliott, Tsimikas, Matip.

Booked: Fabinho. 

Goals: Salah (2), Jota (2), Gakpo, Nunez.

Manager: Jurgen Klopp.

Referee: Craig Pawson.

Attendance: 36,657. 

Liverpool scored another five minutes later through Mo Salah and though Luis Sinisterra pulled one back early in the second half, they then watched rather too helplessly as Liverpool ripped through them with two goals from Diogo Jota, another from Salah and a late one from substitute Darwin Nunez.

Liverpool were ruthless and clinical. In a season that has seen them play so unconvincingly, Jurgen Klopp’s team have scored nine against Bournemouth, seven against Rangers and Manchester United and now six against Leeds. Sadly for them all the bits in and around that have been of a rather lower standard. 

Here we saw what Liverpool remain capable of, even if all it does is provide a little hope for next season.

Liverpool’s first half goals arrived like a boxer’s combination and with them Leeds went from being well in the fight to on the floor. By the time Gakpo scored in the 35th minute, Liverpool’s possession stood at 75 per cent. 

They had not done an awful lot with it in terms of creating chances, but the constant pass and move seemed to take a toll on Leeds legs.

The opener was not without controversy, though. Alexander-Arnold’s charge down of Junior Firpo’s pass in midfield clearly came via his elbow. There even seemed to be a movement of the arm towards the ball.

When he moved forward and exchanged passes with Salah on the right, the England man’s low cross was nudged in at the far post by Gakpo.

But everyone waited for the goal to be ruled out. It was not. The PGMOL later told us it was allowed to stand because they deemed it accidental handball, not deliberate. Elland Road took it reasonably well, which was a surprise. The boos started four minutes later, though, as Liverpool stole possession again to double their lead.

Gakpo got the ball rolling after a slow start in the game before the Leeds collapse came 

Luis Sinisterra had given Leeds hope as he netted almost immediately at the start of the second half

Jota had been dreadful up until this point and some ‘experts’ on social media were already calling for him to be taken off.

But when he took the ball from Weston McKennie in the Liverpool half, he carried it 50 yards up field to feed Salah on the left and the Egyptian’s first time finish gave Illan Meslier no chance.

Leeds were reeling but it is not a feeling unfamiliar to them. Under Javi Gracia’s predecessor Jesse Marsch they would often concede goals in quick succession. A setback would turn into a mini-crisis pretty quickly. Nothing, it seems, has changed.

Prior to Liverpool’s first goal, Leeds had been reasonably comfortable. Yes, the visitors had most of the ball but the home team’s counter-attacks were dangerous. Rodrigo was left unmarked to head straight at Alisson, then Luis Sinisterra broke down the left to shoot into the side-netting after Ibrahima Konate gave the ball away.

Salah’s second strike arrived after a great break from the visitors with Gakpo teeing the Egyptian

Darwin Nunez was a late substitute and fired home from another Alexander-Arnold pass

Brenden Aaronson was also presented with a chance shortly before Gakpo’s goal but, fed by a Sinisterra backheel, seemed to take a nudge in the back from Virgil van Dijk before slicing his shot horribly.

That was all very well but what Leeds needed was a goal. Two minutes into the second half, Liverpool gave them one.

It was Konate again who lost possession and this time he was close enough to his own penalty area for it to represent a problem. Sinisterra picked his pocket and ran on to score a dinked finish.

Jurgen Klopp was unable to hold back his smile as his side put on a show at Elland Road

Elland Road was alive now and Leeds had a platform and some adrenaline in their veins. What they did not have, however, was any composure or organisation and the game slipped away from them in 15 catastrophic minutes.

Jota’s first goal — it has taken him a year to find one — came in the 52nd minute. Curtis Jones played him in with a super ball from just inside the Leeds half and Jota finished first time. Leeds were hanging on with fully half an hour still to play. They needed stronger fingernails, mind, as when Jota won the ball in his own half and fed Andy Robertson down the left, the ball was shifted infield to Gakpo and on to Salah who scored.

It was a fabulous goal but Leeds were wretched by now. Some of their football, so lacking in intelligence, was befitting a Sunday League team.

Again it was Jota for the fifth, this time with a sweeping low finish. There was to be one more and Alexander-Arnold was involved again. His pass from deep landed on the chest of Nunez, who controlled well and shot low past Meslier.

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