Salah in poor form but could break new record

Although historically European and South American footballers have had greater visibility and transcendence in Europe's top competition, the UEFA Champions League, the truth is that a large number of African players have also left their mark on a tournament that increasingly has them as protagonists, being specifically this new century where great stars of that continent have scored a large number of goals.

African football has gained weight in the top continental competition especially in the goalscoring section, as several of the killers of the area that have seen some regularity have put the name of countries like Ivory Coast, Senegal or Cameroon on high, entering among all of these now that of Egypt, with Mohamed Salah commanding the Liverpool attack since the 2017-2018 season.

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For this 2022-2023 edition of the UEFA Champions League, Liverpool had a difficult start after losing to Napoli by a score of 4-1, predicting a difficult game at home to Ajax, which in the end they were able to solve thanks to goals from Mohamed Salah and Joel Matip, with the Egyptian scoring the opening goal after 17 minutes, reaching 41 goals in the continental tournament to get closer to the top, which is still led by Didier Drogba with 44 goals.

The former Ivory Coast international made his Champions League debut for Marseille in August 2003, finding the net in his first group game. Didi, as he was known, played most of his games in the tournament for Chelsea, with his most memorable night coming on 19 May 2012 when he scored the equaliser against Bayern in the Munich final, before scoring the decisive penalty in the shootout.

Salah's statistics

Mo Salah's first-half effort was reflected in his 41st Champions League goal (including qualifying). The Egyptian is now only three goals behind Didier Drogba's African record. The Liverpool player will still have several games to go before he can equal or even surpass Didi's record this season, and he must not slacken his pace if he is not to be overtaken in time by his former team-mate Sadio Mane who has 24 goals.