Mo Salah has a frankly astonishing record he could maintain as Liverpool face Toulouse in the Europa League.
This is the third time Liverpool have played Toulouse, with the previous meetings coming in the 2007 Champions League third qualifying round.
Coincidentally, Liverpool are still the only English team the French team have ever faced in European competition.
If the Reds were to win on Thursday, it would be Jurgen Klopp‘s 150th win in a Liverpool ‘home game’, including a fixture vs. RB Leipzig in Budapest.
A fantastic recent record
Liverpool have lost eight times in 73 games at Anfield in the Europa League‘s three guises, with only Celtic’s 2-0 win in 2003 being by more than one goal.
The Reds have finished top of their Europa League group in all three of their most recent seasons in the competition. On each occasion they amassed 10 points – in 2010-11, 2012-13 and 2015-16.
In European competition, Klopp’s team have won 13 of their last 14 group games – the loss at Napoli last season being the only non-victory.
Liverpool have conceded only seven times in the opening 10 minutes of any European game at Anfield. The last was from Wissam Ben Yedder of Sevilla after five minutes of a Champions League game in September 2017.
The Reds have used 21 players in their two Europa League games so far this season, with only Harvey Elliott and Kostas Tsimikas playing every minute.
Allez Les Rouges
Back in 2007, Liverpool won 1-0 in Toulouse thanks to Andriy Voronin’s 43rd-minute goal, his first for the Reds. In the return leg at Anfield, Liverpool won 4-0 with goals from Peter Crouch, Sami Hyypia and Dirk Kuyt (2).
That Anfield win was the first time Liverpool had played a European match without a locally born player.
Liverpool have played 30 matches against French clubs down the years, winning 17 and losing 10 with three draws. In 15 Anfield clashes, they have lost twice – against Marseille in 2008 and Lyon in 2009.
Toulouse are one of 10 clubs from France that Liverpool have faced in European competition. The others are St Etienne, Auxerre, Paris St Germain, Strasbourg, Marseille, Monaco, Bordeaux, Lyon and Lille.
Didier Drogba is the last player to net a penalty for a French team against Liverpool – at Anfield in 2004, playing for Marseille.
The numbers keep growing
In this game Mo Salah could become the 13th player to reach 70 European appearances for Liverpool.
Should Ben Doak score, he would become only the second 17 year-old, after Michael Owen (17 years 276 days in 1997), to score for Liverpool in Europe. Doak would be 17 years and 349 days old.
LFC have scored in each of their last 22 outings since the 0-0 draw at Chelsea in early April.
The Reds have won all six home games this season, scoring 16 goals in the process, and have scored in each of their last 16 Anfield matches in all competitions.
Salah has made five substitute appearances for Liverpool in European competition, and has scored five times in those games. On average, that is goal as a sub every 13 and a half minutes!
Cody Gakpo and Zakaria Aboukhlal are set for a reunion after they played together for PSV Eindhoven in 2019-20.
A bit about the visitors
This is Toulouse’s first venture in Europe since 2009-10, when they were eliminated from the Europa League after finishing third in their group.
In fact, Toulouse have never progressed from a group stage in Europe, failing to do so in this competition in 2007-08 and 2009-10. They were founded in 1937 and have yet to win the French top-flight.
The previous incarnation of Toulouse FC saw them lift the Coupe de France back in 1957 against SC Angers, with the final being refereed for the only time in history by an Englishman, Jack Clough.
They won the competition last season while finishing 13th in Ligue 1. They have scored only two second-half goals in the last nine matches.
This season’s scorers
Liverpool: Salah 8, Jota 4, Nunez 4, Diaz 3, Gakpo 3, Szoboszlai 2, Gravenberch 1, Robertson 1, own goals 2
Toulouse: Aboukhlal 3, Dallinga 3, Magri 3, Gelabert 1, Nicolaisen 1, Schmidt 1, Suazo 1
* Stats courtesy of LFC statistician Ged Rea (@ged0407).
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