His previous Champions League final lasted only half an hour, cut down in Kiev by the wrestling arms of Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos. Here, in the broiling heat of Ramos’ adopted city, Mo Salah buried the memories inside two minutes.
This was not the best performance of Salah’s increasingly gilded career. On the whole he was marshalled and directed down blind alleyways expertly by Tottenham’s man of the match Jan Vertonghen.
But this was redemption nevertheless for what happened so cruelly 12 months ago when Liverpool succumbed 3-1 to the great Spanish side.
Mohamed Salah celebrates after opening the scoring in Madrid after just two minutes
When Tottenham’s Moussa Sissoko handled inside the penalty area within 30 seconds of the game starting, Liverpool supporters may have wished that their expert penalty taker James Milner was on the field.
But it didn’t matter. Salah is unflappable in front of goal, whether it’s a dead ball or a moving ball. The 26-year-old has that rare, unteachable ability to shut out all the noise, to stop the clocks inside his own mind.
Unsurprisingly, his penalty was precise and nerveless and it went a very long way to winning a very poor game for Liverpool.
Salah strikes his penalty straight down the middle in the Champions League final early on
And that is what matters. Salah and Liverpool team-mates were far from their best here in Spain, dulled a little perhaps by the temperature that hovered at 30 degrees at kick-off and robbed of their edge by the three weeks of inactivity that was inexplicably allowed to precede this final.
But they will not care and they should not care. They are champions of Europe and who is to say that a player like Salah does not deserve it?
The Egyptian has known great challenges before in his life. He is a more complicated individual than we may expect for a man who goes about his work on the field in such straight forward, unfussy fashion. His has been a career that took time to find momentum, especially during his early years in Europe.
Even when established at Roma, he felt so under pressure from his millions of fans in Africa that he built a football pitch in his garden and would practice his shooting every day, aiming at small holes in a covering hung over the goal.
In an interview with Gary Lineker broadcast on BT Sport before this game, Salah said: ‘Everybody in Egypt was looking at me. The pressure from the media I also couldn’t handle.’
Still, though, nothing in his life or his career had prepared him for what happened last year in Kiev. The Champions League final was supposed to provide an incredible debut season with Liverpool with a fitting end.
The Egyptian scores his 27th goal of the season at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium
Divock Origi celebrates after scoring Liverpool’s decisive second goal in the final minutes
There was no guarantee that Liverpool would win but it seemed inconceivable that Salah would not leave some kind of impression on the game.
For 20 minutes or so, Liverpool were impressive and this is something that has subsequently been forgotten.
But once Salah fell under Ramos’ robust challenge, there was nowhere else for him to go but the dressing room. It changed the final and it ruined Salah’s season and indeed the World Cup summer that followed. He played for Egypt in Russia but was not himself.
‘It was the most disappointing moment in my career and in my life,’ Salah said. ‘To go off the field was so bad after the season we had all had together at Liverpool. ‘I get emotional when I talk about it. I had such a good season but then suddenly everything looked very black.
‘You never know how any times you will get to play in the Champions League final. But there was no point crying, crying, crying. I had to make sure I played in the final many more times.’
So here he was again just a year later. He has not always fired in Europe this season but he remains Liverpool’s best attacking player by a distance and when he joked that Liverpool wanted to face a Tottenham side with Harry Kane in it, you could be sure that Mauricio Pochettino’s team would quite happily have taken the absence of one of Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino here.
Origi’s low strike flies beyond Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in the 87th minute
Salah is pulled to the ground by Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos during the 2018 final
The return of Firmino to Liverpool’s team was important but Salah is Liverpool’s talisman in so many ways. What he wouldn’t have expected is for his chance to make a mark to arrive so soon.
Sissoko’s handball was accidental but also very clear. The referee showed bravery to award a penalty so soon in the game but it was the right call and Salah was the calmest man in Madrid as he beat Hugo Lloris down the middle of his goal.
It was a quite stunning start to the game but for a while it seemed to have an effect on Liverpool as much as did Tottenham. Liverpool’s football lacked its usual zip for much of the game and their attempts to make good their lead by doubling it were lacking in their usual decisiveness.
Salah had his moments and was always a willing recipient of the ball when Liverpool sought to release periods of Tottenham pressure. But on the whole Vertonghen was the equal of him, refusing to allowing him to turn, directing in to safe areas and, importantly, hardly fouling him.
At times Salah drifted infield in search of influence and one lovely lay-off in the second half could have settled the game sooner had Milner, on as a substitute, not driven his low shot six inches the wrong side of the post.
Ultimately that goal came from the boot of another substitute Divock Origi with only minutes left and the Belgian’s low shot was one of the few moments of real quality in a strange game. Salah and Liverpool will play much better than this and lose. But a year on from disappointment and physical pain in the Ukraine, they have what they deserve.
Salah was unable to continue in Kiev a year ago after sustaining a devastating shoulder injury
Liverpool forward Salah lifts the Champions League trophy in Madrid after beating Tottenham