African players in Europe: Liverpool trio wreak havoc

Mane and Salah netted twice each after Keita had put the Reds ahead in 15 seconds at Anfield as a thrilling title race with Manchester City continued.

Defending champions City won 1-0 at Burnley two days later to top the table by one point with two rounds remaining.

ENGLAND

NABY KEITA (Liverpool)

The midfielder launched the Reds’ rout of Huddersfield with an opening goal after 15 seconds — Liverpool’s quickest of the Premier League era. He closed down the Terriers’ Jon Goren Stankovic, robbed him of the ball, exchanged passes with Salah and advanced into the area to score with an accomplished finish from some 15 yards in a brilliant example of the team’s football under manager Jurgen Klopp.

SADIO MANE (Liverpool)

An excellent season for the forward continued with two goals. Following good work by full-back Andrew Robertson, he found space between his markers to head his 11th goal in 13 games in the 23rd minute before another header, in the 65th minute, saw him score his 20th league goal of the campaign.

MOHAMED SALAH (Liverpool)

Earlier in the season when he was undergoing the kind of ‘goal drought’ common to all forwards, there were those who questioned whether the Egypt star was a “one-season” wonder. In first-half stoppage time he wrapped up the points for Liverpool with a sublime lob over the head of the advancing goalkeeper following a brilliantly-weighted ball from Trent Alexander-Arnold. He then completed the scoring seven minutes from time with a classic close-range finish.

SPAIN

SAMUEL CHUKWUEZE, KARL TOKO EKAMBI (Villarreal)

Nigerian Chukwueze and Cameroonian Toko Ekambi could not find a winner as Villarreal were held 1-1 by Huesca in La Liga. A point puts Villarreal five points clear of the bottom three and should be enough to see them safe, but a victory would made have made survival all but certain. The Africans have 25 goals between them this season but drew a blank as Huesca’s Ezequiel Avila cancelled Pablo Fornals’ first-half strike.

ITALY

FRANCK KESSIE (AC Milan)

The 22-year-old Ivory Coast midfielder was harshly penalised for a push on Armando Izzo, which resulted in a penalty for Torino in the second half. It was converted by Andrea Belotti before Spanish winger Alex Berenguer made it 2-0 as Torino celebrated their first Serie A win over Milan since 2001.

GERMANY

SALIF SANE (Schalke)

The Senegalese defender helped Schalke to a shock 4-2 victory in a local derby against Bundesliga title challengers Borussia Dortmund. Sane rose at a corner to put Schalke 2-1 up in the first half. The win saw Schalke move one step closer to survival, and threw a spanner in the works of Dortmund’s title bid.

IBRAHIMA TRAORE (Borussia Moenchengladbach)

The Guinea international missed two chances in quick succession in injury time as his side lost 1-0 to relegation candidates Stuttgart. The defeat saw Gladbach miss the chance to bounce back into the top four after Eintracht Frankfurt were held at home by Hertha Berlin. Gladbach slipped to sixth, three points behind Frankfurt and two below Hoffenheim.

FRANCE

NICOLAS PEPE (LILLE)

The Ivorian striker scored his 20th Ligue 1 goal of the season with a simple tap-in as Lille closed in on next season’s Champions League group stage with a 5-0 thrashing of Nimes. Pepe’s side are now six points clear of third-placed Lyon in the second automatic qualification spot.

YOUCEF ATAL (NICE)

The Algerian international scored the first hat-trick of his young career to inspire Patrick Vieira’s Nice to a 3-0 victory over Guingamp. The 22-year-old usually plays as a full-back, but made the most of a move to the wing to take his tally for the season to six Ligue 1 goals.

EDSON MEXER (RENNES)

Mozambique defender Mexer picked the perfect time to score only his second goal of the season as the 30-year-old headed in the equaliser as Rennes came back from 2-0 down to stun Paris Saint-Germain on penalties in the French Cup final. His side won 6-5 in the shootout to lift their first trophy since the 1971 French Cup.

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