MO SALAH scored his 199th goal at Liverpool in the waltz that showed Jurgen Klopp wasn’t worried about anything.
The Egyptian king of Anfield scored a penalty in the 51st minute as Liverpool battled to reach the last 16 as the winner of the organization.
The fifth-leading scorer in Kop’s history has rarely had a night.
Because by the time he withdrew his shot, the Austrians in Linz were already being dragged towards certain defeat.
Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo scored in the first 15 minutes and from that point on, the only debate would be how many LASK would lose.
Boss Jurgen Klopp had touted the tie as a potential banana peel, imploring his club’s fans to create a big-night European atmosphere for them.
He knew that facing a physically difficult series of 11 games in 33 days, he would have to rest most of his players.
There’s also the surprise 3-2 away defeat to Toulouse early last month, which meant that, technically, the Europa League favourites could still make a mistake.
And he has indeed made nine adjustments from Sunday’s draw with Manchester City.
Salah, however, didn’t stay as captain as an insurance policy, just in case.
But he may have simply sat on the bench with his feet up, like most of Klopp’s brightest stars.
Once Diaz and Gakpo scored, progress was still assured, while Klopp’s biggest fear, that his hard-working side would have to play in the round of 16, also proved unfounded.
What is normally a walk in the park began 12 minutes later with a clever starter, Diaz threw the ball across the box to Joe Gomez.
The defender returned the compliment and Diaz stepped forward to head into the net.
Gakpo plundered the moment after blow that left the ASK players dizzy.
Diaz found Salah, who gave him the ball back and the Colombian, walking on air now following that release of his parents after the family’s kidnap nightmare, eased a pass sideways.
The Dutchman could not miss his shot almost under the crossbar.
Kostas Tsimikas fired a shot against the crossbar as a tense Klopp unleashed his own to secure Salah’s tenth goal of the season at home.
Goalkeeper Tobias Walwal grabbed Gakpo’s ankle and Salah glided with disdainful ease, before Gakpo added his in stoppage time.
Find out how the adjustment spread on our live blog. . .
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