Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp full of praise for Mane, Salah after Porto rout

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has praised Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah for their displays following his side’s 5-0 demolition of Porto.

Sadio Mane’s hat-trick and lone efforts from Salah and Roberto Firmino gave the Merseyside outfit a first-leg advantage in their round of 16 clash with the Portuguese top-flight club.

The Senegal international ended his five-game goal drought and the German tactician is relieved the 25-year-old has found his scoring boots again.

"He gave the right answer. That's good. I said to him after the last game 'finally you're back' immediately after when we talked on the pitch,” Klopp was quoted by SkySports.

"Tonight he showed again what a fantastic player he is. He was always important, he was always fantastic for us, even in his not-that-good moments. That's a real quality if you are not 100 percent and still scoring, maybe not that often but involved in goals then that's really important.

"Then they will come if you keep on working really hard like he did then there can be a moment like this. The first one was a little bit lucky, but then the other two were being in the right place, the second one, and using your fantastic skills for the last one. Good, really good, and I am happy about it."

On Salah who notched his 30th goal of the season on Wednesday night, the former Borussia Dortmund boss hopes the summer-signing from AS Roma maintains his goalscoring form.

"He plays a good season, I recognise that already. But it's of course very important for us. I think each goal was kind of a winner and that's very important,” he continued

"We spoke about Mo in the last few weeks, completely deserved, but obviously Sadio had his comeback tonight, very good, and Roberto [Firmino] was there again after outstanding work rate again. It was good. Ox [Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain] obviously as well. Congratulations but hopefully he [Salah] will not stop."

Liverpool host Sergio Conceicao's side at Anfield for the return leg of the last-16 game on March 6.