His previous Champions League Final lasted only half an hour as he was cut down in Kiev by the wrestling arms of Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos. Here, in the broiling heat of Ramos’ adopted city, Mo Salah buried those memories early on.
This was not the best performance of Salah’s increasingly gilded career. On the whole he was marshalled and directed down blind alleyways expertly by Tottenham’s man of the match Jan Vertonghen.
But this was redemption nevertheless. When Tottenham’s Moussa Sissoko handled inside the penalty area within 30 seconds of the game starting. Liverpool supporters may have wished expert penalty taker James Milner was on the field.
It didn’t matter. Saha is unflappable in front of goal, whether it’s a dead ball or a moving ball. His penalty was precise and that is what matters. Salah and Liverpool were far from their best, dulled by the temperature that hovered at 30 degrees at kick-off. But they will not care. They are champions of Europe and who can say a player like Salah does not deserve it?
Salah has known great challenges before in his life. His has been a career that took time to find momentum, especially during his early years in Europe.
Even when established at Rome, he felt so under pressure from his millions of fans in Africa that he built a football pitch in his garden and would practise his shooting every day, aiming at small holes in a covering hung over the goal.
In an interview with Gary Lineker broadcast on BT Sport before this game, Salah said: ‘Everybody in Egypt was looking at me. The pressure from the media I also couldn’t handle.’
But nothing in his life or his career had prepared him for what happened last year in Kiev. The Champions League final was supposed to provide an incredible debut season with Liverpool with a fitting end.
There was no guarantee that Liverpool would win but it seemed inconceivable that Salah would not leave some kind of impression on the game.
For 20 minutes or so, Liverpool were impressive and this is something that has been forgotten. The Premier League side were the better team in the opening moments, with Salah’s direct running causing Madrid to panic at times.
But once Salah fell under Ramos’ robust challenge, there was nowhere else for him to go but the dressing room. It changed the final and ruined Salah’s season — and indeed the World Cup summer that followed. He played for Egypt in Russia but was not himself.
‘It was the most disappointing moment in my career and in my life,’ Salah told Lineker.
‘To go off the field was so bad after the season we had all had together at Liverpool.
‘I get emotional when I talk about it. I had such a good season but then suddenly everything looked very black.
‘You never know how many times you will get to play in the Champions League Final. But there was no point crying, crying, crying. I had to make sure I played in the final many more times.’
This season has not actually seen Salah at his best in Europe. He scored three goals on the way to the final — the most important one ensuring that Liverpool edged through the group stages by beating Napoli 1-0 at Anfield in December.
But he did not contribute in the season-turning win at Bayern Munich and was absent injured when Barcelona were downed so spectacularly at Anfield in the second leg of the semi-final.
He remains Liverpool’s best attacking player by a distance, however, and when he joked that Liverpool wanted to face a Tottenham side with Harry Kane in it, you could be sure that Mauricio Pochettino’s team would quite happily have taken the absence of Salah, Sadio Mane or Roberto Firmino here.
The return of Firmino to Liverpool’s team was important. The Brazilian brings a natural focus to Liverpool’s attack, his hold-up play so exquisite that Salah and Mane can work off him.
Nevertheless, Salah is Liverpool’s talisman in so many ways and it is doubtful there would have been a more motivated player in the dry evening heat of this cavernous stadium. What he would not have expected is for his chance to make a mark to arrive so soon.
Sissoko’s handball was naive and accidental but also very clear. The referee showed bravery to award a penalty so soon in the game but it was the right call and Salah was the calmest man in Madrid as he beat Hugo Lloris down the middle.
It was a quite stunning start to the game but for a while it seemed to have as much of an effect on Liverpool as it did Tottenham.
Maybe it was the heat or maybe the unexpected sensation of being ahead so unfeasibly early.
Whatever it was, Liverpool’s football lacked its usual zip in the opening half.
Salah did turn Vertonghen nicely only to shoot willdly across goal when other players were in better positions.
It was a rare moment of potency from Liverpool who seemed content to slow the game down and let Tottenham make the running.
As expected, Salah was stationed wide right but was tempted to drift infield in search of the ball. On one occasion he aimed a right-footed volley at a ball that dropped from a clearance but shot over the bar.
Vertonghen, in particular, was playing Salah very well. Just before the hour, the striker had his man one-on-one only to see his shot blocked. It was a surprise not to see Salah try to twist and turn past him. A sign of rustiness after a three-week break perhaps, but Salah did not lack an appetite for the ball.
His lay-off to James Milner could have brought Liverpool the second goal they craved but the shot was six inches the wrong side of the post. That goal came in the end from the boot of substitute Divock Origi with only minutes left, one of the few moments of real quality in a strange game. Sarah and Liverpool will play much better than this and lose. A year on from disappointment in the Ukraine, they have what they deserve.