Liverpool attacker Mohamed Salah has equalled a Premier League goalscoring record with his late strike in Saturday's 2-2 draw with Fulham.
The 30-year-old made the trip to Craven Cottage aiming to keep up his remarkable 100% streak of scoring in every Premier League opening weekend since his move to Liverpool in 2017.
The Reds were firmly on the back foot in the early exchanges, though, and Fulham took a deserved lead when Aleksandar Mitrovic rose above Trent Alexander-Arnold to head home.
Jurgen Klopp sent the same XI onto the field for the second half before bringing on Harvey Elliott and Darwin Nunez, and Salah would pick out the latter to level the scores in the second half.
Marco Silva's side restored their lead from the penalty spot after Mitrovic was caught by Virgil van Dijk, but Nunez then turned provider for Salah to slot home from close range in the final 10 minutes.
The Egyptian's late equaliser at Craven Cottage represented his eighth Premier League opening-weekend goal, and no player has scored more than him in their inaugural matches of a top-flight campaign.
Only Alan Shearer, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard have also scored as many goals on the first day of a Premier League season, so Salah could become the outright record holder if he remains at Liverpool for the 2023-24 season.
Salah memorably flirted with a move to either Real Madrid or Barcelona several months ago but is now contracted to Liverpool until 2025, and he now boasts 158 goals from 256 games for the Reds in all tournaments.
The former Chelsea man's individual achievement paled into insignificance at Craven Cottage, though, as Klopp admitted that his side played a "really bad game" after rescuing a point.
"I feel much more responsible for defeats than if you win, and that's unfortunately my nature. The performance was a defeat – the result is not a defeat but the performance was a defeat and that's why we have to figure out what happened," Klopp told reporters in his post-match press conference.
"It can happen. And again, if we win today and don't learn anything from the game, much worse than getting a point and learn the right things – I'm fine with that.
"So that's what we are working on now. That's not us today, it was not us today. I don't want to take anything away from Fulham, they did really well, but to be 100 per cent honest, we were in front of the goal and should've scored, so that's the truth as well.
"We played a really bad game and get a point, so that's all a truth as well. But playing the way we played is not how we should play and that's why my frustration about that is pretty high."
The Reds were also dealt yet another injury blow with midfielder Thiago Alcantara, who was clutching his hamstring as he hobbled off on the 51-minute mark, and Klopp admitted that the Spaniard's condition did not look promising.
Liverpool will now aim to pick up their first victory of the 2022-23 Premier League season when they face Crystal Palace at Anfield on August 15. body check tags ::
