Home / Football / Champions League News Slot hails Salah mentality after Liverpool stars 50th Champions League goal Salah was instrumental for the Reds. Written by Nicholas McGee Last Update: March 18, 2026 11:16:57 pm GMT 2 min read Arne Slot paid tribute to Mohamed Salahs mentality after he responded to missing a penalty against Galatasaray by inspiring Liverpool to a 4-0 Champions League win and scoring his 50th goal in the competition. Liverpool trailed 1-0 from the first leg of the last-16 tie in Istanbul, but the scores were level on aggregate after Dominik Szoboszlais 25th-minute finish.Salah missed a golden chance to complete the turnaround just before half-time when his poor low penalty was saved by Ugurcan Cakir.But Salah was outstanding in the second half, laying on the assist for Hugo Ekitike to give Liverpool the advantage in the tie, with his goal quickly followed by Liverpools third as Ryan Gravenberch tucked home on the rebound after Cakir had thwarted Salah again.After Liverpool saw an own goal from Wilfried Singo ruled out for offside, Salahs moment arrived when he bent home in typical fashion to become the first African player to score 50 Champions League goals.Slot praises Liverpool talismanSalah then came off with an apparent injury after hitting the crossbar, but Slot had plenty of plaudits for Liverpools Egyptian star.Slot told TNT Sports: I think it says a lot about his mentality that he missed the penalty just before half-time. And that was of course a difficult moment because after 45 minutes being 1-0 up was ridiculous if you looked at the run of play. But that happened so many times to us, so for us its not so ridiculous. And then to come out second half and perform like that, the great assist on Hugo and the goal he scored was a trademark of him, I think he scored many of them. So yeah, credits to him and to the whole team.Liverpool now face holders Paris Saint-Germain in the last eight, having lost to Luis Enriques side on penalties in the round of 16 last season.We were completely outplayed away from home last season and then lost on penalties, Slot said of that rematch.They havent dropped their standards, but after tonight they wont be happy to play us. Topics: Champions League Liverpool F.C. Follow us: Nicholas McGee Nicholas is a freelance sports journalist with significant experience covering a wide variety of sports. He has previously worked for Stats Perform and was most recently employed as San Francisco 49ers beat writer for A to Z Sports. He regularly contributes to Gridiron magazine and has also had NFL work featured in The Times and The Mirror. Read more from Nicholas McGee
