CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Super sub Salah makes history with hat-trick inside seven minutes
GLASGOW: Mo Salah hit the fastest hat-trick in Champions League history as Liverpool thrashed Rangers 7-1 while Tottenham beat 10-man Eintracht Frankfurt 3-2 to go top of their group.
Jurgen Klopp’s side had cantered to a 2-0 win over a tentative Gers side at Anfield last Tuesday but there was initially more fight about the Gers this time and they took the lead in the 17th minute with a Scott Arfield drive.
Last season’s finalists responded seven minutes later when Brazilian attacker Roberto Firmino headed in from a corner before grabbing a second in the 55th minute as the visitors’ superior quality came to the fore.
Striker Darwin Nunez added a third with a fine finish in the 66th minute before Salah grabbed three goals in six minutes and 12 seconds with Harvey Elliott also notching as Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side crumbled.
It was not so much a Battle of Britain as a massacre and the Govan side remain rooted at the bottom of Group A without a point while Liverpool are six points clear of Ajax and three behind leaders Napoli with two fixtures remaining.
A Son Heung-min brace and Harry Kane’s first Champions League goal in nearly three years helped Tottenham take control of Group D but only after a dramatic 3-2 comeback win at home to 10-man Eintracht Frankfurt.
Spurs were left stunned when the visitors took a 14th-minute lead through Daichi Kamada but Son’s first-half brace – sandwiched between a Kane spot-kick – ensured Antonio Conte watched his team fight back to taste success for a sixth consecutive time in N17 this season despite Faride Alidou’s late header.
Kane did blaze a second penalty over in stoppage-time and Frankfurt ended with 10-men after Tuta’s red card.
But Tottenham’s win sent them to the Group D summit and victory over previous leaders Sporting Lisbon in two weeks will put Conte’s men through to the knock-out stage.
This was Spurs’ first home game in almost a month and after an emotional win at Brighton, further tributes were paid to late fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone, who died last week.
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