Opinion: How Mohamed Salah ripped Milan apart

Mohamed Salah rounded out his excellent first Serie A season with Roma by putting in an outstanding Man of the Match performance against AC Milan in the Giallorossi's emphatic 3-1 victory at the San Siro last weekend.

From the outset, the Egyptian dynamo wreaked havoc down the right, ensuring Rossoneri left-back Alessio Romagnoli endured a torrid evening at the office.

Salah's penchant to hug the touchline worked wonders, as this successfully dragged his marker out wide so he could isolate Romagnoli in one v one scenarios. Milan subsequently made the decision to try and double-team the former Basel star in an attempt to nullify his influence, but Salah, not to be outdone, intelligently altered his approach to get around this.

By opting to drift inside, which inherently drew Romagnoli with him, he provided the perfect platform for Roma right-back Alessandro Florenzi to give his side width. And the Italian international duly obliged, constantly bombing forward into the space Salah's clever movement had created.

Arguably the key feature of Salah's excellent showing, however, was his astute ability to persistently get in behind the Milanese backline courtesy of his brilliantly timed forward runs.

The way Salah cunningly arced and angled his runs in behind to get into promising positions to latch onto through balls was a joy to watch.

Whether working the left channel or more central areas, Milan had no answer for Salah's well executed forays, as he stretched and manipulated their defensive shape at will.

Unsurprisingly, Salah opened the scoring on 13 minutes following one of his customarily dangerous runs. Here, after Roma forced a turnover, the ball eventually arrived at the feet of Kevin Strootman.

The Dutchman looked up and immediately noticed Salah sprinting upfield at full tilt. He then proceeded to find his colleague with an exquisite lofted through ball right into Salah's path. Upon obtaining possession, Salah's blistering speed had meant he'd completely breached Milan's defensive structure and was now confronted with a one on one against Gianluigi Donnarumma.

And Salah made no mistake, finish coolly past the hapless keeper to take his tally to 14 for the season.

Salah further impacted the contest by way of his underrated passing ability, as he laid off four key passes and completed a notable 86.4% of his passes - an impressive figure considering most of his passes were undertaken in the most heavily congested area of the pitch.

All things considered, it was the ideal way for him to sign off on a splendid campaign with the club he now so dearly loves playing for.

"I'm delighted at the Giallorossi," he said. "I feel at ease with all of my teammates and I love the city."

And the best bit? He’s still only 23.

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