Sadio Mane has been in remarkable form for Liverpool in 2019.Despite making a relatively slow start to the season with eight goals before the New Year, the Senegalese has been the club's star player during the winter and spring months.Mane has racked up 13 goals in the calendar year and has thrust himself into contention for the Premier League Golden Boot, amassing more strikes from open play than anybody else.Jamie Carragher even believes that Mane is more important than Mohamed Salah to Liverpool's run-in, remarking this week: "He's the best wide player Liverpool have had for 30 years."You have to go back to John Barnes since Liverpool have had a wide player like that. You think about it and I think sometimes he goes under the radar.

Mane's brilliant form

"It's not just scoring, being top of the charts, getting goals when it's 4-0 and banging a couple in at the end of the game, it's the importance of the goals Mane is getting."

It's pretty hard to argue with Carragher and the importance of his goals were once again underlined on Wednesday night, when he opened the scoring at Porto to essentially kill off the tie.

Mane has shown a real love for the Champions League in particular recently, repeating his goal-scoring antics from last season that saw Real Madrid rocking in Kiev.

Mane has made CL history

In fact, Mane's strike at the Estadio do Dragao was his tenth goal in the knockout rounds of Europe's premier competition, setting him up for a rather impressive statistic.

The finish means that Mane now has the best minute per goal ratio in Champions League knockout history, when only forwards with 10 or more strikes are considered.

Averaging a goal every 95 minutes, it means the Liverpool forward is more lethal from the round of 16 to the final than players like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Pretty impressive going - check out the top ten down below:

When it comes to the business end of the Champions League, it seems Mane becomes harder to stop than ever and it bodes incredibly well for Liverpool this season.

Ok, the 27-year-old has the advantage of playing in fewer knockout games than some of his rivals but a difference of more than half an hour before Messi can't be ignored.

Mane scored a hat-trick against Porto last season, punished Manchester City at home, scored home and away against Roma and found the net during the final.

Meanwhile, the latest campaign saw him bag a brace at the Allianz Arena as well as his latest strike against a Porto team getting sick of the sight of him.

So, with a massive game against Barcelona on the horizon, Liverpool can at least sleep safe in the knowledge that Mane is - in one respect - even more lethal than Messi.

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