Salah Responds To Finishing Seventh In The Ballon d'Or Rankings, As He Targets To Win Both The Champions League And Premier League

Mohamed Salah keeps mute over Ballon d'Or ranking as he fired a brace in Liverpool's derby demolition of Everton.

Just days after the Ballon d'Or ceremony was held, the Egyptian star have refused to criticize the organizers after finishing seventh in the Ballon d'Or votings.

Rather Salah went on to put up a masterclass performance by scoring Liverpool's second and third goals in the 239th Merseyside derby on Wednesday night.

The Reds captain Jordan Henderson opened scoring just 9 minute into the game with an excellent finish from inside the penalty area through an Andy Robertson assist, and Liverpool were well in control.

Salah doubled the lead in the 19th minute by curling a shot into the far corner.

Demarai Gray pulled one back for the Toffees before the half-time, but Salah scored his second of the night from a Seamus Coleman mistake in the 64th minute to restore Liverpool's initial two-goal lead before Diogo Jota rounded off the scoring by adding a fourth goal in the 79th minute which prompted some disgusted Everyone fans to leave the Goodison Park.

The game ended 4-1 in favour of Liverpool for the first time away to Everton since 2016, as pressure begins to mount on their former boss Rafael Benitez who is now without a win in eight games.

Salah speaking to Amazon on how he felt about the Ballon d'Or vote said: "I have no comment,".

"Hopefully" will finish higher next year and score many more goals.

When asked how many goals he plans on scoring this season. "My first target is to win something at the club: the Premier League, Champions League, hopefully both."

"The message from the manager was that they will play physically strong and go 100% for every ball; we just had to play our game and try to create chances, which we did," Salah said.

"I expected him [Coleman] to do a mistake which he did. The game was tough at 2-1 but at 3-1 it becomes much better.

Salah's seventh-place finish in the Ballon d'Or was a bit controversial given the Egyptian attacker scored 31 times for Liverpool in 2020-21.

He is currently the league's top scorer with 13 goals, and has also provided the most assists so far this season (8) surpassing Paul Pogba's (7).

Highly regarded as one of the world's top goalsscorer and a provider, the 27-year-old already has a total of 19 goals and eight assists in just 19 appearances this season.

German boss Jurgen Klopp also revealed that his star-man (Salah) was unhappy that he didn’t get his hands on the match ball.

The forward came off the Everton pitch ‘angry’ at himself for not netting a hattrick after their win.

“He was angry after the game!” Klopp told Amazon Prime.

“He wanted to score the third one. I don’t take these things for granted.

“His second goal, you have to force these kinds of mistakes. Mo put Coleman under pressure to win that ball and from then on it is a good chance he will score.”

"It really speaks volumes of the Egyptian King’s talent and mentality... The 54-year-old added. "He’s never happy to settle and is always looking to improve and help the team."

The former Dortmund manager who arrived Liverpool in 2015, believes that last night’s performance was the best he has seen from Liverpool in an away derby fixture.

“We have momentum but it was by far the best performance since I’ve seen at Goodison,”

“Before the game people told me that in derbies form or shape doesn’t count, I see it totally different.

"Apart from the five minutes after Demarai Grey halved the deficit prior to half-time, our superiority over Rafa Benitez’s side was clear to see throughout the game.

"Another great performance from Mo and the whole team – long may the top quality displays continue"!

Liverpool remain third in the Premier League table as Chelsea and Manchester City maintained the top two spots with wins in their various games.

The Reds pay a visit to Wolves on Saturday afternoon, they travel to Italy to take on AC Milan in their final Champions League group stage match, having already qualified as group winners.