MO SALAH returned to action to give Liverpool a huge boost ahead of Sunday’s Premier League battle with Manchester City.
The Egyptian international, who had not featured since February 18 due to a recurrence of a hamstring issue, replaced Luis Diaz in the 74th minute for only his third Liverpool game of 2024.
Within 10 minutes of his introduction, Salah thought he had struck a fifth goal but it was ruled out by VAR for offside.
By then, Liverpool had effectively put both feet in the Europa League quarter-finals with a penalty from Alexis Mac Allister, a Darwin Nunez double and the fourth from Luis Diaz.
In injury-time, Dominik Szoboszlai made it 5-1 to make next Thursday’s second leg a formality.
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Sparta, who trailed 3-0 at the break, pulled one goal back in the first minute of the second half thanks to an own goal by Conor Bradley.
Yet despite the Czechs missing a few chances, Liverpool were always in command.
And the only worry ahead of Sunday’s game was an injury to Ibrahima Konate while Joe Gomez was also replaced at half-time.
Liverpool were not at their best but they did not need to be against a poor Czech side.
Sparta pressed the self-destruct button after five minutes when Mac Allister was kicked to the ground by Asger Sorensen and the Liverpool midfielder sent keeper Peter Vindahl the wrong way.
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Nunez marked his 50th Liverpool start by creating something out of nothing with a dipping shot from outside the area although bungling home keeper Vindahl dived past the shot.
It was the 1000th goal Liverpool have scored under Jurgen Klopp.
Veljko Birmancevic missed an open goal for Sparta and then Nunez grabbed his second by smashing a half-volley into the far corner with the last kick of the first half.
Klopp substituted Bradley for Gomez at half-time and he would not have expected the young right-back to hammer the ball into his own net 39 seconds into the second half.
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Diaz grabbed the fourth with a deflected shot and while Salah was denied by VAR, midfielder Szoboszlai made it 5-1 from the edge of the area although again, the keeper was at fault.
