Mohamed Salah took his Premier League goals tally to 31 for the season with his second-half finish against West Brom on Saturday afternoon.
The Egypt international, who joined the Reds in a £34 million move from AS Roma last summer, has equalled the joint-record held by Alan Shearer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez for most goals in a Premier League season.
It’s a phenomenal achievement – nobody saw him scoring this many goals in his debut campaign with the Merseyside outfit – but Salah’s 31st goal of the campaign failed to earn Liverpool all three points on this occasion.
Jurgen Klopp’s men led 2-0 but conceded twice in the final 10 minutes following goals from Jake Liverpool and Salomon Rondon.
Klopp had substituted Salah with six minutes remaining, with Tuesday’s Champions League clash against Roma at the forefront of his mind, putting defender Dejan Lovren on in his place.
However, the Croatian was unable to prevent Rondon from equalising for the hosts at the Hawthorns.
Another reason why Klopp may have withdrawn Salah, aside from the fact Liverpool are days away from their biggest match of the season so far, is the whack the Egyptian took from his international teammate Ahmed Hegazi minutes earlier.
THE INCIDENT INVOLVING HEGAZI AND SALAH
Hegazi jumped for the ball and, in the process, clobbered Salah around the face with his hand.
It looked like a sore one for Salah, who was left checking for any signs of blood.
الشعب المصري يتمنى التوفيق لجميع المحترفين عدا العاق #أحمد_حجازي اللي ضرب #محمد_صلاح 😂@22mosalah @Hegazi @LFC pic.twitter.com/S9GzzCMksd
— Ahmed Beshara (@ambeshara) April 21, 2018
Hegazi wasn’t booked by referee Stuart Attwell, to the amazement of Liverpool fans on social media, although Klopp and many others felt the defender should have been sent off for punching Danny Ings earlier in the second half.
“It’s a red card,” Klopp was quoted as saying by Goal.com after the match. “But you see it, I see it, that’s not important. It matters only what the three or four gentlemen with the whistle say. We can’t change that.”
HEGAZI AND SALAH INVOLVED IN TWITTER EXCHANGE
Despite making a nuisance of himself, Hegazi met up with Salah after the game and had a photo taken together. No sign of any bad blood there. And the two Egyptians were involved in a funny Twitter exchange after the match.
Hegazi tweeted: “Great team effort today! Happy to see my brother @22mosalah after a tough game 💪❤🇪🇬 #WBA #Egypt ❤️❤️“
Great team effort today! Happy to see my brother @22mosalah after a tough game 💪❤🇪🇬 #WBA #Egypt ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/gnCVF4C3kr
— Ahmed hegazi (@Hegazi) April 21, 2018
Salah, rather brilliantly, then replied: “You beat me up in the match and then come to say here ‘happy to see my brother’ … You have a heavy hand.”
انت بتضرب في الماتش وتيجي هنا تقولي happy to see my brother ..😄😄brother مين بقا ايدك تقيله اوي 👊🏼
— Mohamed Salah (@22mosalah) April 21, 2018
The two players then continued to joke after Hegazi said that Salah had fouled him first.
Two opponents having a light-hearted Twitter exchange for our entertainment – great stuff, lads.