LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool moved to within four points of fourth-place Manchester United with a 1-0 win over Fulham in the Premier League on Wednesday.
Mohamed Salah’s 39th-minute penalty earned the Merseyside club a fifth straight league win to keep alive its slim hopes of Champions League qualification.
United has two games in hand over Liverpool. Third-place Newcastle leads Liverpool by six points with one game in hand.
It was the first time Liverpool has won five successive matches since April last year.
Salah’s penalty, his second in consecutive games after back-to-back misses, took him to 185 goals for Liverpool, one behind club great Steven Gerrard. He also moved to fifth on Liverpool’s list of all-time league scorers with 136.
The breakthrough came after Issa Diop took down Darwin Nunez in the box.
Referee Stuart Attwell pointed to the spot and Salah scored an identical penalty to the one against Spurs — blasted straight down the middle.
Alisson had to save from Carlos Vinicius to prevent an equalizer with 13 minutes remaining to keep Liverpool’s top four bid alive — even if it the team is still relying on United or Newcastle to drop points.
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