Mohamed Salah makes most of attacking freedom to score hat-trick

Egyptian football legend Mohamed Salah rolled back the years for his Turkish side Trabzonspor as they thrashed league leaders Galatasaray 4-0 on Saturday. The 34-year-old’s first hat-trick in the Turkish Super Lig lifted Trabzonspor to 10 points and fifth place, three points behind the leaders.

Salah also had one assist, four shots on target, three successful dribbles and two key passes in a display reminiscent of his glory years with Liverpool. The Egyptian superstar now has 7 goals in the competition this season and sits on top of the scorers' chart.

The victory against rivals Galatasaray was only their third of the season, after a 1-0 loss against Konyaspor led to the resignation of coach Fatih Tekke. And it did not take Trabzonspor long to open the scoring on new coach Thomas Reis’ debut.

Salah scored his first goal in the fourth minute, before netting again just before after half-time to build on the lead he and Noah Saviolo had created. The Egyptian scored his third late on, in the 80th minute. Galatasaray’s night was made worse in the 87th minute, when substitute Lesley Ugochukwu got sent off.

Following the rout, Reis said: “First of all, we know Salah’s quality and what he is capable of. We know how dangerous he can be when he has the ball, but today the whole team fought incredibly hard. They fought incredibly hard to create those spaces for him.

“I’m very happy to be Salah’s coach. But at the same time, our defenders, all our midfielders, everyone did a very good job. Today they were very useful to him and helped him.”

The German had previously cited the lure of working with the former Liverpool star as the reason he took up the job in the first place, having signed a two-year contract to leave Bulgarian club Ludogorets. He replaced Tekke, who resigned when the team were eliminated from the Europa League last month.

"Working with a player of his calibre is perhaps one of the best things that can happen to a coach," Reis said in a club statement, adding he would give Salah "freedom in attack."

Reis previously coached in the Turkish league taking unheralded Samsunspor to a third-place finish two seasons ago behind Istanbul powers Galatasaray and Fenerbahce.

"I know this place and I know how intense the games are here," the coach said.

Ludogorets said in a statement it was surprised at the offer to take Reis, who expressed a wish to work at Trabzonspor with talents like Salah, Fabinho and goalkeeper Andre Onana.

Trabzonspor won the last of their seven Turkish league titles in 2022.