After spending two weeks waiting for the golden moment to arrive, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was finally able to bestow Mohamed Salah with a special '200' t-shirt commemorating a double-century of strikes for the men in red.
Smashing records for fun and leaving beleaguered foes in his wake left, right and centre since returning to the Premier League scene in 2017, Salah wrote a new chapter in the Liverpool history books on Saturday by helping the Reds come from behind to defeat Crystal Palace 2-1.
While the 31-year-old was the beneficiary of a significant deflection, there was no denying Salah his golden achievement, which also marked the attacker's 150th goal in the Premier League on a day of individual and collective success for the Merseyside powerhouses, who will end the weekend at the summit of the Premier League standings.
Following Salah's 200th Liverpool goal, Sports Mole breaks down the key numbers behind the Egyptian's winger's landmark tally for the Reds.
FIRST GOAL - Watford 3-3 Liverpool (August 12, 2017)
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Taking no time at all to reacclimatise to British soil after leaving the world of Serie A behind, Salah's Premier League debut for the Reds came at Watford's Vicarage Road headquarters, where he was involved in two of his side's three goals in a 3-3 extravaganza.
Twice the Hornets led through Stefano Okaka and Abdoulaye Doucoure, and twice the Reds hit back through two members of the old guard in Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, the latter of whom converted a penalty won by Salah in the 55th minute.
The roles were reversed just two minutes later, as Firmino held his run to receive a long ball over the top from Dejan Lovren, and while his looping chip over Huerelho Gomes appeared to be bouncing just wide, Salah arrived on the scene to poke home into an empty net.
A dramatic Miguel Britos header three minutes into injury time would deny Liverpool all three points in the capital, leaving Salah and his teammates ruing what could have been, but the 31-year-old's close-range finish would mark the first step on the road to Reds stardom.
50TH GOAL - Liverpool 4-0 Red Star Belgrade (October 24, 2018)
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Beginning their journey to go one better in the 2018-19 Champions League, having endured Kyiv heartbreak against Real Madrid, Liverpool sunk perpetual French champions Paris Saint-Germain in their opening group game before falling short away to Napoli.
However, the visit of Serbian minnows Red Star Belgrade offered Klopp's men a prime opportunity to get back on track, and Firmino would need just 20 minutes to begin the Anfield rout in October 2018.
Sitting on 48 goals before kickoff, Salah inched ever closer to his half-century in the 45th minute, lashing a right-footed effort into the centre of the goal, and he assumed penalty duties six minutes into the second half as Mane was felled inside the box.
Despite Red Star goalkeeper Milan Borjan coming a good couple of yards off his line, Salah's penalty into the roof of the net was unstoppable, as the Egyptian reached 50 goals for Liverpool in just 65 games - quicker than any of his Reds predecessors to hit the half-century mark.
100TH GOAL - Everton 2-2 Liverpool (October 17, 2020)
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A drama-packed Merseyside derby worthy of a full Goodison Park crowd, Everton welcomed their bitter adversaries to their headquarters in October 2020 with not a single spectator present, robbing Salah of a bouncing away end to celebrate his three-figure achievement with.
Of course, Virgil van Dijk's devastating ACL injury dominated the post-match talk, but the goalmouth action was noteworthy in its own right, as Mane broke the deadlock for Liverpool inside just three minutes before Michael Keane headed in from a corner by the forgotten man James Rodriguez.
The net would not ripple again until the 72nd minute, but it was a strike worth waiting for, as Yerry Mina's improvised backheel clearance only fell as far as Salah, who did not even take a touch before firing a stunning half-volley into the far corner for his 100th Liverpool goal.
The former Chelsea and Roma man took 159 games to hit that landmark for the club - only Roger Hunt (144) and Jack Parkinson (153) did so in quicker time - and no Liverpool player since Steven Gerrard in 2008 had reached the century mark until Salah left his mark on Goodison again.
200TH GOAL - Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool (December 9, 2023)
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A couple of opportunities for goal number 200 had already passed Salah by since the winger brought up his 199th against LASK Linz in the Europa League, having tried and failed to breach Fulham and Sheffield United's backlines before heading south to Selhurst Park.
Never shy to voice his contempt for 12.30pm kickoffs, Klopp cut a frustrated figure on the touchline as Liverpool struggled to create anything meaningful and deservedly went behind to a 57th-minute Mateta penalty, having escaped potentially conceding a spot kick in the first half thanks to a VAR intervention.
However, the Eagles' lead was extinguished after 19 minutes thanks to some unintended help from a former Liverpool man, as Salah's low shot was diverted from its original path by Nathaniel Clyne, and Sam Johnstone could not react quickly enough to prevent the Egyptian's shot from nestling into the bottom corner.
Harvey Elliott would complete another trademark Liverpool turnaround in added time, but the accolades belonged to Salah, who followed in Ian Rush, Hunt, Gordon Hodgson and Billy Liddell's footsteps as the fifth Reds player to record a double-century, doing so in his 327th appearance in Liverpool colours.
PREMIER LEAGUE GOALS - 148
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As Salah gleefully received his 200 shirt from Klopp on Saturday, it was easy to overlook the significance of the 31-year-old's deflected strike in a Premier League sense, as he joined the competition's exclusive 150 club.
Drawing level with Michael Owen in 10th place in the all-time standings, Salah scored a pair of top-flight efforts for Chelsea before his brief Italian sojourn, and the Egypt international has since made the net ripple 148 times in the Premier League for his current club.
Salah's debut season for Liverpool remains his most prolific in the top flight, taking home the Golden Boot with an astounding 32 strikes in just 36 matches, and he retained the trophy in 2018-19 with 22 efforts, albeit while also sharing a slice with fellow Africans Mane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
With 11 goals already under his belt in the current top-flight campaign, Salah's next target is the Premier League's ninth all-time top scorer Jermain Defoe, who sits 12 clear of the 31-year-old with 162 strikes, while another erstwhile Red in Robbie Fowler (163) is also in his sights.
EUROPEAN GOALS - 45
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Boasting a wealth of continental records since first donning the Liverpool jersey, Salah has netted a total of 45 goals for the Reds across their Champions League and Europa League campaigns, more than any other player in the history of the Merseyside titans.
Ending his second season at Anfield with a Champions League medal around his neck, Salah has come up with 42 strikes for Liverpool in Europe's elite tournament - including one qualifying strike against Hoffenheim - and three in the ongoing Europa League campaign, surpassing Arsenal great Thierry Henry for the most at a single English club.
Before Liverpool dropped down a division in Europe, Salah left his mark on the Ibrox soil last season with the quickest-ever hat-trick ever seen in the Champions League, taking just six minutes and 12 seconds to take home the match ball in a 7-1 demolition of Rangers.
The Europa League Golden Boot is well within Salah's reach too, as the Egyptian currently sits two behind Marseille's Aubameyang and Brighton & Hove Albion's Joao Pedro - who have five apiece - and having sealed a first-placed group finish with a game to spare, Liverpool seen as the leading contenders to hoist the trophy aloft in Dublin.
FA CUP/EFL CUP/COMMUNITY SHIELD GOALS - Seven
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With Klopp not hesitating for a second to deploy fringe and academy players in cup competitions, it comes as little surprise to see that Salah's contributions in domestic knockout contests are few and far between, having only amassed seven strikes to date.
Five of those efforts have come in the FA Cup, and Salah scored on his first appearance for Liverpool in the competition, although his strike versus West Bromwich Albion was in vain as the Reds lost 3-2 to the Baggies in the 2017-18 fourth round.
The Reds' journey also ended in round four in 2020-21, but not before Salah had netted three goals, and while he did not register during Liverpool's run to glory in 2021-22, January's third-round draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield saw the winger return to scoring ways.
Salah has never played more than one EFL Cup game a season for Liverpool, scoring his solitary goal in last season's fourth-round loss to Manchester City, prior to which he struck against the treble winners in last year's Community Shield triumph at the King Power Stadium.
Ben Knapton
