Mohamed Salah challenged Liverpool to carry their Champions League form into the Premier League and make the most of their remaining games before the World Cup.
The Egypt international poached the first goal in a 2-0 home win over Napoli on Tuesday as Liverpool ended their group-stage campaign in Europe on a high with a fifth successive victory in the competition.
The Anfield outcome was not enough for Liverpool to topple their Italian opponents from the top of Group A, but both march through to the last-16 stage with ambitions to go deep.
Yet Liverpool's domestic form has been poor this term, with just four wins in 12 Premier League games seeing them stuck in a mid-table rut, exemplified by recent losses to Nottingham Forest and Leeds United.
Jurgen Klopp's side have Tottenham away on Sunday, followed by Southampton at home the following Saturday, before a large number of their players head to Qatar 2022.
Salah will not be among them, after Egypt's penalty shoot-out defeat to Senegal in African qualifying back in March, with his ambitions for the season all centred around bringing trophy success to Liverpool.
He savoured the moment against Luciano Spalletti's Napoli, who are leading the Serie A title race, and told BT Sport: "To win against one of the best teams in the world, one of the best coaches in the world, it's always a good feeling, but we just need to carry on.
"It's a good result for us – hopefully it gives us more confidence, and we just need to focus now in the Premier League and carry on."
Salah did not realise he had been awarded the opening goal, after Darwin Nunez's powerful header almost crept over the line before the ball trickled back out. Salah tucked it in to make sure but said afterwards: "Is it mine? Honestly, I didn't know."
He now has seven in this season's Champions League, making him the competition's top goalscorer for now.
Nunez got Liverpool's second from inches out in the final moments, the second tap-in of the game, and Salah said: "As a striker, I like to score and Darwin also likes to score, so we're glad that we got both goals today.
"I think it's important, that win today. It gives us more confidence, especially because we played a good game, and we played with the ball and without the ball, we tried to recover the ball quickly. As you can see in the league we're not doing great, but hopefully we can give ourselves a push, and we just need to win more games in the league."
After playing with two forwards recently, Klopp reverted to his long-favoured 4-3-3 formation, and it paid off.
Salah said choosing Liverpool's shape was "not my job, it's the gaffer's job", but he firmly indicated his preference for the three-man attacking line, with his role on the right of the trio.
"Any position that makes me comfortable, I'm happy about it, but I've played in the position for five, six years and I have to say that yes, the position is the best for me, but I'm not the manager," Salah said.
"The manager decides the tactics, and as a player you have to follow the leader."
Atletico Madrid 3-1 Athletic Bilbao: Hosts close in on top-four finish
Atletico Madrid beat newly crowned Copa del Rey winners Athletic Bilbao 3-1 at home in LaLiga on Saturday as Diego Simeone's side moved a step closer to a top-four finish.
Fourth-placed Atletico moved onto 64 points and have increased their advantage over Athletic, in fifth, to six points with five games to play.
Midfielder Rodrigo de Paul put Atletico in front in the 15th minute with a goal from outside the box. After controlling an attempted clearance from the visitors, his effort dipped just under the bar as his strike deflected off one of the Athletic defenders.
Athletic levelled just before half-time through Nico Williams after Antoine Griezmann lost the ball through a careless pass.
But Angel Correa restored the lead for Atletico in the 52nd minute and later came close to scoring again.
With 10 minutes to play, away goalkeeper Unai Simon inadvertently made it 3-1 with an own goal after Samuel Lino’s effort came back off the post, ending any Athletic hopes of a comeback.
Hull City 3-3 Ipswich Town: Tigers fight back three times to deny Tractor Boys
Ipswich Town missed the chance to move into an automatic promotion spot as play-off-chasing Hull City came from behind three times in a thrilling 3-3 Championship draw at The MKM Stadium.
Ipswich knew a victory would take them second after Leeds United were surprisingly beaten 4-0 by Queens Park Rangers on Friday, and they led on three separate occasions, George Hirst opening the scoring before Omari Hutchinson produced two brilliant strikes from the edge of the area.
However, buoyed by slip-ups from rivals Norwich City and West Brom earlier on Saturday, Hull dug deep to fight back on each occasion, Ozan Tufan and Liam Delap scoring their first two equalisers.
With Liam Rosenior's men 3-2 down with just four minutes to play, substitute Noah Ohio blasted his shot in off the crossbar to punish an error from Ipswich goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky.
The result keeps Ipswich behind second-placed Leeds on goal difference, though the Tractor Boys have a game in hand to come at Coventry City on Tuesday.
Hull, meanwhile, are two points adrift of the top six, with Norwich's goal difference advantage meaning their top-six spot is all but assured. The Tigers will, however, leapfrog West Brom if they beat Plymouth Argyle on the final day and Albion lose to Preston North End.
Data Debrief: Hutchinson's best not enough
Hutchinson was a man who deserved to be on the winning side on Saturday, giving Ryan Allsop no chance with two near-identical left-footed strikes from the right corner of the penalty area.
His goals came from an expected goals (xG) total of just 0.6, and he led all players on the pitch for shots (eight) and passes in the final third (21), also laying on three chances for his team-mates.
Chelsea and Hayes fall short again in the Champions League
Chelsea and Emma Hayes have once again fallen short of securing a place in the final of the Champions League.
There will be a feeling of déjà vu as Barcelona stopped Chelsea at this stage of the competition last season and seem to be the Blues’ Achilles' heel.
Hayes, who is leaving at the end of season to manage the US Women's National team, was hoping she could complete her last season with Champions League glory, the only trophy to elude her during an illustrious spell at Chelsea, but it was not to be.
Chelsea had pulled off a remarkable result in the first leg and were leading 1-0 at the halfway point of the tie.
With a record crowd of 39,398 roaring them on, it felt like Saturday could be the night on which Chelsea changed their fortunes in this competition.
However, the Catalan holders showed their big-game mentality and Ballon d’or winner Aitana Bonmati had cancelled out Chelsea's lead in the tie within 25 minutes at Stamford Bridge.
The drama ensued from that point on with two huge decisions by referee Iuliana Demetrescu sealing the Blues’ fate.
Kadeisha Buchanan was given her marching orders when she received a somewhat harsh second yellow card just before the hour mark for a foul on Salma Paralluelo, then Fridolina Rolfo scored the all-important goal from the spot when Ashley Lawrence was adjudged to have fouled Bonmati.
Hayes felt aggrieved by the calls made by the Romanian referee and made her feelings known to the officials at the full-time whistle, when she could be seen mouthing the words; ‘we’ve been robbed’.
Hayes could not hide her disappointment when speaking to the media after the tie and had strong words for UEFA.
“I didn’t feel we got the opportunity to lose the game, that was taken away,” said Hayes.
“I was surprised when I saw her [Demetrescu] selected because she’s famous for easy cards and I think that [Buchanan's sending-off] is probably the worst decision in UEFA Women’s Champions League history.
“So when you get such a shocking official decision, there’s nothing you can do about it.
“It’s hard enough when we’ve got 11 against them [Barcelona], but when you’ve got 10 it’s virtually impossible.
“Even Barcelona players said to us they knew the referee was helpful for them. I didn’t think it was a foul [from Buchanan] let alone a yellow card. I’m gutted for the players, we were robbed."
On the red card, Hayes added: “I was stood there and I looked at the fourth official and I said, ‘Surely that will be checked?’ and she said, ‘It can’t on a yellow’.
“But as I said, I think the toughest thing to take is that we didn’t lose it.
“There’s nothing you can do when there’s such a terrible decision and it’s already hard enough. They are a top team. When that’s taken out of your hands, that’s a tough one to take for the players.”
Hayes may have reason to question the appointment of Demetrescu as the data shows she has awarded four penalties in three UEFA Women's Champions League games this season, more than any other referee.
Barcelona have now reached the final for the fourth consecutive year and will face either eight-time champions Lyon or Paris Saint-Germain, the finalists from 2015 and 2017.
Bonmati shared her elation about winning the tie with DAZN after the game, saying: "A little bit lucky but sometimes you have to shoot in the box and you never know."
"It’s amazing, another final," Bonmati added as her team-mates danced and sang in the rain in front of the travelling fans.
"It wasn’t easy because we had a tough team in front of us. We had to sweat our T-shirts to achieve it. I’m proud of my team and let’s go in for another final."
This win saw Barcelona earn their fifth clean sheet from 10 matches in the competition this season, a higher total than any other team has managed.
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