On New Year’s Day in 2024, Liverpool defeated Newcastle 4-2 to take a three-point lead atop the Premier League. Interestingly, Mohamed Salah was seen performing a superstitious deed, which may have contributed to his late penalty against Newcastle.
During their match against Newcastle, Liverpool showed off their superiority with an amazing 34 shots and a record-breaking 7.27 anticipated goals. This number is the highest that has been documented since Opta started gathering this kind of information in 2010.
Salah gave up a penalty in the first half, but he soon made up for it by giving Liverpool the lead. But Newcastle’s Alexander Isak answered with an equaliser.
With two goals each, Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo restored Liverpool’s lead. But Sven Botman’s header against the flow of play made the match’s conclusion more suspenseful.
After Liverpool’s Diogo Jota won a contentious late penalty, Salah converted his second spot-kick to seal the win.
Remarkably, supporters on social media noticed that Salah switched his shoes throughout the half, a move that matched his performance in the second half and his successful penalty kick following the first half’s miss.
The Egyptian forward was questioned on Sky Sports following the match if he changed his shoes out of superstition. He replied, “I just trained with the ones I missed a penalty with yesterday.” Although it’s not superstitious, I wanted to alter them. My mind was at ease after I made the change.
