Liverpool 4-0 Tottenham: Mo Salah puts his favourite opponents to the sword again as Reds reach Wembley | OneFootball

Mo Salah was once again the man for Liverpool to rely on as they beat Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 to reach the Carabao Cup Final.

The Reds went into the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final trailing 1-0, but they were very much favourites to reach the final. In fact, they were still favourites to win the competition as a whole.

One of the reasons for the belief that Liverpool would turn things around was the advantage of playing at home in the second leg. Anfield would will them to overcome the one-goal deficit. The other reason, was Salah.

Salah was been wonderful this season across all competitions. There’s a reason he’s odds-on favourite to be named PFA Player of the Year. And it’s the same reason Liverpool fans are desperate for him to sign a new deal.

The Egyptian went into Thursday’s game having been directly involved in 42 goals for Liverpool across all competitions, in 33 matches. That broke down to 25 goals and 17 assists, with the large majority coming in the Premier League, of course.

In the EFL Cup, Salah has been quite quiet this season. Not that he’s had too much playing time. Salah scored in the opening 5-1 win over West Ham United, but played just 31 minutes in that match. He then only featured for 19 minutes in the win over Brighton and Hove Albion, before missing the quarter-final victory over Southampton altogether.

The first leg against Tottenham was Salah’s first full 90 minutes in the EFL Cup this season. His second came at Anfield, and this time it brought two direct goal involvements. The first was an assist for Cody Gakpo, with a lovely outside-of-the-boot ball across the box. It had a bit of fortune reaching Gakpo, but the pass was lovely.

Of course Gakpo was going to score, the Carabao Cup is his competition. The Dutchman has now scored nine goals in 11 Carabao Cup appearances for Liverpool. He’s also scored 10 goals in his last 10 games at Anfield across all competitions. The goal gave Salah his first assist in the competition since October 2014, for Chelsea against Shrewsbury Town. That was a game Salah didn’t particularly enjoy, struggling against the lower league side despite the assist.

Salah then put Liverpool 2-0 up from the penalty spot, but that shouldn’t be sniffed at. The penalty was won thanks to a lovely ball into the path of Darwin Nunez by Salah. It was the perfect weight and had the positioning that was setting Nunez up to either score or be brought down by the goalkeeper. In the end it was the latter.

And up stepped Salah to rifle his penalty into the top left corner, an effort that no goalkeeper was going to be stopping. Salah has now been directly involved in 18 goals in 18 games for Liverpool against Tottenham, scoring 13 and providing five assists.

It was the 10th time this season that Salah had both scored and assisted in a single game for Liverpool. Two of those have come against Tottenham too, with Salah also scoring two and providing two assists in the 3-6 away league win in December.

Liverpool have now reached the final of the Carabao Cup for the 15th time in the competition’s history. Just Newcastle United stand in their way of retaining their crown, and lifting the trophy for a record-extending 11th time.