Mohamed Salah is an early injury doubt for Liverpool’s Premier League clash with Brighton on Saturday after picking up a knock in the Champions League against Galatasaray.

Salah missed a first-half penalty but was on the scoresheet after the break as Liverpool overturned a first-leg deficit to advance to the Champions League quarter-finals.

Salah’s strike, along with goals from Dominik Szoboszlai, Hugo Ekitike and Ryan Gravenberch, saw the Reds cruise to a 4- 0 win at Anfield and a 4-1 victory on aggregate against their Turkish opponents.

Perhaps the only negative on the night was a potential injury to Salah, with the Eygytian signalling to the bench that he needed to come off with 15 minutes remaining in the match.

Salah was replaced by Cody Gakpo for the closing stages, but now faces a race to be fit for Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off away at Brighton.

Asked for an update on Salah after the match, Slot said: ‘He was asking for a substitution, not because he felt he’d scored enough, but he felt something.

‘So let’s see where he is for the weekend and afterwards.’

On Salah’s performance prior to being forced off, Slot added: ‘It says a lot about him that after missing a penalty just before half-time [to score that goal].

‘That can sometimes be hard for an individual or for a team, so compliment to the team for how we came out in the second half because we’ve had a lot of setbacks this season, we’ve had a lot of first or second halves where we’ve created chance after chance after chance without doing justice to how we’ve performed, so not scoring.

‘Then, Mo and the team came out in the second half the way they did. He assisted first to Hugo, a great assist, and then scored a trademark goal, which he scored many of in this stadium and for this club, coming inside and finding the top corner.

‘That tells you about the mental strength of him, but definitely also of the team because adversity is something we can talk about when it comes to this season.’

Liverpool now face defending champions Paris Saint-Germain in the last eight, having been knocked out by the French side on penalties last season.

‘If you go to the latter stages of the Champions League, you know one thing for sure: that you’re going to face Paris Saint-Germain because it is an incredible team,’ Slot said when asked about the upcoming tie.

‘We’ve experienced that last season when we faced them. Away from home, a very, very difficult game and here at Anfield… I said tonight we played a perfect game and here at Anfield we played also a fantastic game [against PSG].

‘I’ve said a lot of times how great of a match that was, the best game I’ve managed in my career – maybe not in the result, but how football should be played.

‘Both teams just playing football, just wanting to enjoy the fans, to entertain the fans. We were the only team that brought them to extra-time, the only team that brought them to penalties, but that team has shown this season that they haven’t dropped a level.

‘We showed tonight that we can still perform at the level we were performing [at] for large parts of last season, so it gives me, us, a lot of confidence that we have this performance.’

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Jamie Carragher believes Liverpool will beat Galatasaray to reach the Champions League quarter-final but feels Arne Slot’s side will be eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain.

Liverpool were beaten in the first leg of their last-16 tie in Turkey on Tuesday night as Mario Lemina’s goal sealed a 1-0 win for Galatasaray.

Slot’s side must now overturn that result at Anfield in the return leg next Tuesday in order to progress to the quarter-final, where they will play either Chelsea or PSG.

Carragher believes the defeat to Galatasaray is a ‘big worry’ for Slot but feels Liverpool’s problems will continue if the Dutchman is sacked at the end of the season.

‘This was an end-to-end game that was a bad game in the end for Liverpool,’ Carragher told CBS Sports.

‘Bad result, really poor in the second half as well. First half started well, a lot of that was to do with the mistakes of Galatasaray. I don’t think Galatasaray had a great team. It’s still a team Liverpool should beat and should go through.

‘So, I’m still 98 per cent. It was 99 a couple of weeks ago. So, I still think Liverpool will go through.

‘But, this is a worry for the for the manager and the team. What we saw tonight is what we saw in early on the group stages away to Galatasaray early on the season.

‘This team is just a million miles off where it was supposed to be this season which was that we’d be talking about them in the same light the way we speak about Bayern Munich right now. That was the whole point of Liverpool spending over £400 million in the summer was to go the next step from winning the Premier League to go and win the Champions League.

‘And we’re talking about a team who have now got to change a deficit against Galatasaray, which I think they will, but I don’t have any hope for Liverpool going any further than that if it’s Paris Saint-Germain in the next round as I think it may be, and that’s that for me is a big worry.

‘And it’s not just a defeat, I think the performances from Liverpool this season are a big worry for the manager. I think I said on this show in the group stage he’s got to do something, he’s got to change something. He’s tried everything really, in lots of different ways, but nothing seems to be able to work and it’s just at no stage this season have I ever felt Liverpool were in control of a football match.

‘It’s either end-to-end basketball, so he wanted to stop that and change that, and then it becomes slow and boring and predictable.

‘Do I think another manager could come in straight away, or any manager, say you give him that squad, I don’t think it dramatically changes.

‘I really do think the makeup of the squad, how it’s been put together, the lack of options in certain areas, is a is a big problem as well. So it’s not just all about the manager but as we know, managers carry the can.’

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Steve McManaman took aim at Ibrahima Konate’s questionable defending following Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat to Galatasaray, claiming the centre-back will have to ‘quickly forget’ his poor performance.

Liverpool endured a nightmare start to the Champions League round-of-16 first leg as Mario Lemina headed Galatasaray in front after only seven minutes in Istanbul.

The hosts looked to have doubled their advantage as the impressive Victor Osimhen capitalised on a defensive blunder from Konate to fire past Giorgi Mamardashvili, only for the strike to be ruled out for offside.

There was another disallowed goal, this time for Liverpool, after Dominik Szoboszlai’s corner was scrambled over the line in the 70th minute, with Konate deemed to have handled in the build-up on this occasion.

Florian Wirtz and Konate also had chances to equalise while Mamardashvili produced a fine stop to deny Davinson Sanchez at the other end of the pitch.

Lemina’s early effort proved to be the difference as referee blew the full-time whistle and Arne Slot’s men will be forced to overturn the narrow deficit if they are to advance from the return leg at Anfield in a week’s time.

‘I thought it was a very frustrating performance. They didn’t do enough at the top end even though they had enough chances,’ ex-Liverpool, Real Madrid and England winger McManaman reflected in the TNT Sports studio.

‘They were also really vulnerable at the back which I haven’t seen for a while.

‘Anything that went into the penalty area, they looked as if they were going to concede.

‘I think Konate had a night that he should quickly forget really because he looked at sixes and sevens for a lot of the evening.’

McManaman felt Konate, Milos Kerkez and Hugo Ekitike were all partly to blame for Lemina’s decisive goal.

‘Osimhen just heads it back into the danger area. There’s nobody really picking up the big number nine,’ he explained.

‘Konate is just standing there on his own. I’m not necessarily blaming him because he’s marking an area but you have to appreciate who the danger man is and it’s Osimhen.

‘And then Kerkez and Ekitike are not doing enough to influence Lemina at all.’

McManaman believes Liverpool should have been awarded their goal midway through the second half, even if they didn’t ‘deserve’ to come away from Istanbul with a draw.

‘I think Liverpool should have been awarded the goal to be honest because if you slow it down, you see Konate goes up and it brushes his hand onto Davinson Sanchez’s head,’ he continued.

‘But the ball then hits the goalkeeper and it then actually hits Virgil van Dijk… Sanchez onto the goalkeeper’s leg, then onto Van Dijk’s heel, back onto the goalkeeper’s backside and it spins into the net.

‘So actually, it accidentally brushes off Konate’s hand, it doesn’t go directly into the goal, and it probably should have stood.

‘Saying that, I don’t think Liverpool actually deserved a draw because they need to liven up.

‘At Anfield, they have to be infinitely better than they were tonight and they will be because the crowd will go crazy. It wasn’t good enough tonight.’

Sat alongside McManaman in the TNT Sports studio, Joe Hart was also left less than impressed by Konate’s showing on the night.

On Galatasaray’s disallowed goal in the first half, the former England goalkeeper said of Konate: ‘Yeah, he is [lucky], it’s not a good moment.

‘He had some really difficult moments tonight, it wasn’t one of his best performances.

‘It was Baris Alper Yilmaz who was offside and as he makes that direct approach to the ball… I know he’s [Konate] not involved in it and the two other guys are directly involved… but yeah, I think Konate will be absolutely delighted to look up and see that flag up.’

According to Hart, the Merseyside giants will not be overly ‘concerned’ with home advantage likely to play a key role in the second leg.

‘I’ll give Galatasaray massive credit, they were on it until the very end,’ he went on.

‘I think Galatasaray deserved the win tonight.

‘I don’t think Liverpool will be too concerned about the second leg but on a 90-minute performance, there were a few bad ones out there and it’s something they will want to get out of their system quickly.’

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Victor Osimhen admits he wants Galatasaray to avoid Liverpool in Friday’s Champions League draw.

Galatasaray needed extra time to eliminate Juventus in their Champions League play-off tie on Wednesday night as the Serie A club scored three goals without reply to make it 5-5 on aggregate.

Osimhen then found the net in extra time to put Galatasaray in front on aggregate before Baris Alper Yilmaz struck to seal the tie for the Turkish champions.

Galatasaray will now play either Liverpool or Tottenham in the Champions League last-16, with the raw due to take place at 11am on Friday morning.

Galatasaray have already beaten Liverpool in the Champions League league phase this season as Osimhen’s first-half penalty sealed a 1-0 win against Arne Slot’s side at home in September.

Asked if he would prefer to face Liverpool or Tottenham in the Champions League last-16, Osimhen told CBS Sports: ‘I mean to be honest with you, meeting Liverpool now is going to be like some sort of revenge.

‘Anyone we meet now… I wouldn’t say much but I would like to escape Liverpool.

‘But if they come, yeah, we’re going to dig it out but it’s not going to be easy.

Who can the Premier League teams play in the Champions League last-16?

Arsenal will play either Bayer Leverkusen or Atalanta

Chelsea will play either Newcastle United or PSG

Liverpool will play either Atletico Madrid or Galatasaray

Man City will play either Bodo/Glimt or Real Madrid

Tottenham will play either Atletico Madrid or Galatasaray

Newcastle United will play either Chelsea or Barcelona

‘I mean this is Champions League, no team is easy, we can see how flying Bodo/Glimt are really doing in this tournament.

‘If you want to win you also have to play the big dogs and make a statement for yourself.

‘We’ve met Liverpool but we haven’t played at Anfield. If we meet them it’s going to be an amazing game. I think we’re up to the task, it’s not going to be easy, of course, but we have fight in us.’

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