Mohamed Salah Reveals Pre-Game Motivational Tool Before Liverpool's Champions League Final Win
Mohamed Salah has revealed he got into the right frame of mind for the Champions League final by studying a picture of himself taken during last year's defeat to Real Madrid in Kiev.
It clearly had the desired effect as the Egyptian scored from the penalty spot after just two minutes to hand the Reds an early lead, which was added to by Divock Origi as Jurgen Klopp's side beat Tottenham 2-0 to claim their sixth Champions League crown.
Last year's 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid wasn't helped by the early departure of their talismanic forward. Salah was substituted early after injuring himself in a tangle with Sergio Ramos, forcing the 26-year-old to leave the field in tears. There was no such agony this time around, with the former Chelsea player telling The Telegraph that the image of him was the ideal inspiration for Saturday's showpiece.
“I looked at the picture from last year before the game,” he said.
"I didn't look at the picture for a long time. You can feel what you can beat you so I just looked at it one time and said, 'OK, let's go'. I was very disappointed that I got injured and went out after 30 minutes and we lost the game. It was something to motivate me to win this time.”
SERGEI SUPINSKY/GettyImages
This season the club also narrowly missed out on lifting the Premier League title, finishing one point off Manchester City in second, despite accruing a staggering 97 points. Salah admitted there is still disappointment there, before claiming Saturday's Champions League final was the perfect way to respond to that failure.
"This year our target was the Champions League and the Premier League. We lost the Premier League by one point so that was also a big disappointment," he added. "You can't finish your season with losing a game. We did everything to win the game and we deserved it. The first trophy and it's the Champions League. With Liverpool! The Champions League. Something special."
