Mo Salah did something last night that no Liverpool player has managed since 1996 | OneFootball

Mo Salah had to wait until the 95th minute to score Liverpool’s winning goal at Burnley last weekend – he went to the other extreme with his decisive impact against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night.

Having begun last season with three goals and assists each after just three matches, he’s had a more subdued start to the current campaign, having scored twice and set up another goal in his first five games of 2025/26.

Inside the first six minutes against Diego Simeone’s side, both of those tallies were bumped up by one. His early free kick cannoned off Andy Robertson and the ball trickled into the net, but there was nothing fortunate about his emphatic finish past Jan Oblak shortly afterwards.

Salah emulates Steve McManaman feat from 1996

In registering both a goal and an assist by the sixth minute last night, Salah accomplished something not seen by a Liverpool player in almost three decades.

As Ian Doyle noted for the Liverpool Echo, the Egyptian became the first man for LFC to score and assist in the first six minutes of a match since Steve McManaman just under 30 years ago.

That came in a 3-0 win over Aston Villa in March 1996, when remarkably all of the goals occurred inside the opening eight minutes. On that day, the Bootle native scored after just 78 seconds and soon set up Robbie Fowler for a masterful finish to double the Reds’ lead.

Credit: Ben Radford/Allsport

Salah could have had another goal and assist last night, too!

Salah hasn’t been at his exhilarating best in the early weeks of this season, but he still has three goals and two assists to his name – and he ought to have had another of each last night!

The Egyptian had the chance to put Liverpool 3-1 up during the second half at the end of a swift counterattack, only to hit the post. Then, in added time he teed up for Hugo Ekitike for what looked like being a tap-in, but the Frenchman inexplicably missed the target from less than 10 yards out.

The 33-year-old’s performance against Atletico was more like the brilliantly effervescent forward we’ve come to idolise over the past decade, with our number 11 yet again rising to the fore on a Champions League night.

The Reds will be looking to him to hit the same standards again in the Merseyside derby on Saturday, just as he did when scoring both goals in a 2-0 Anfield win a couple of years ago.