Mohamed Salah was Liverpool's match-winner against Aston Villa on Saturday night.In what proved to be a closely-contested Premier League clash at Anfield, Salah shouldered all the pressure to convert the winning goal from the penalty spot and secure a 1-0 victory for the Reds.The Egyptian wizard won the second-half penalty on the back of being brought to ground by Tyrone Mings and made no mistake from 12 yards by rattling his shot emphatically into the bottom corner.
Salah vs Martinez
And that's no small feat when you consider that Salah was lining up against a goalkeeper, Emiliano Martinez, who has become notorious for his 's***housery' surrounding spot-kicks.
Martinez has established himself as one of the world's best 'keepers in 2021 and hasn't been afraid to use the so-called dark arts of football when it comes to the sport's most pressurising set-piece.
On his way to saving three Colombia penalties at the Copa America this summer, the Argentine shot-stopper went viral for bad-mouthing and trash-talking the spot-kick takers that he faced.
Martinez's history with penalties
According to talkSPORT, Martinez taunted Yerry Mina by saying: “You’re nervous, huh? You’re laughing but you’re nervous. See how I know where you’ll shoot. And then I’ll save it."
And alas, Martinez did indeed deny the Everton defender. So, we perhaps shouldn't have been surprised when his penalty antics reoccured with Aston Villa in the Premier League this season.
The 29-year-old seemed to be asking Cristiano Ronaldo why he wasn't taking Manchester United's penalty just before Bruno Fernandes went on to miss spot-kick during their clash in September.
So, what did Martinez have in store for Salah? Well, not only did the ex-Arsenal man join in with the likes of Mings in delaying the penalty, but he also tried to influence where the shot would end up.
Salah gets the better of Martinez
That's because both footage from the stands and on the broadcast show Martinez cheekily pointing to his right-hand side, almost certainly to get into Salah's head about his planned strike to come.
The result? Well, Salah simply wasn't having any of it because the Liverpool star responded by ignoring Martinez's pointing and shooting so brilliantly that guessing the correct way was irrelevant.
There couldn't have been a better way to show that you're too ice cold for Martinez's antics than by scoring a penalty so good that his dive simply didn't matter, so be sure to check it out down below:
Sorry, Emiliano, but your penalty tricks don't work on everybody.
One of the world's best penalty takers
And perhaps we shouldn't be surprised because Salah is quietly amassing one of the finest penalty records in the Premier League with a superb return of 19 goals from 21 spot-kicks for the Reds.
Such is Salah's ice-cold resolve from 12 yards that he's managed to defy Martinez, Ederson, Jan Oblak, Edouard Mendy and Hugo Lloris to name just a few on his penalty warpath for the club.
Liverpool 1-0 Aston Villa Match Reaction (Football Terrace)
As a result, it's not from without the realms of possibility that Martinez will go back to the drawing board for when he next faces Salah because the oldest trick in the book simply didn't work.
