Isak, Robertson and a late Wirtz get Liverpool to fourth, but Salah's hamstring is the night's real story
Liverpool got the result, climbed into fourth, and moved a step closer to nailing down a Champions League place. None of that was what Anfield was talking about at the final whistle. Mo Salah, off after an hour with a hamstring problem in what may end up being his last home appearance for the club, walked off to a standing ovation that felt heavier than the scoreline.
The football itself broke Liverpool's way. Alexander Isak, scoring his first since coming back from injury, opened the scoring on 35 minutes from a Mac Allister assist. Andy Robertson made it two five minutes later. Daniel Munoz pulled one back for Crystal Palace on 71 minutes after Freddie Woodman went down injured, but a Florian Wirtz finish in the sixth minute of stoppage time settled it at 3-1 and let Arne Slot's side leapfrog Aston Villa into fourth with four games to play.
A goal for Isak, a worrying minute for Salah
The Isak goal mattered for its own reasons. He has been chasing fitness for weeks, and finding the net in the way he did, picked out by Alexis Mac Allister and finishing low into the corner, was the kind of evening Liverpool have been waiting for him to have. Robertson's second, a few minutes later, came from a familiar Liverpool attack down the left.
Then, on 59 minutes, Salah went down clutching the back of his thigh. He tried to run it off, took a few jogged steps, and signalled to the bench. Jeremie Frimpong came on. Salah, who announced last month that he is leaving Liverpool at the end of the season after nine years, walked the long way round the pitch and sat on the bench with a towel over his head.
What it means for the rest of the season
Salah is 33. Hamstring injuries at that age tend to need three to eight weeks to heal, and Liverpool's last game of the season is at home to Brentford on May 24, which is right at the edge of that window. The wider question is whether the Egyptian gets one more Anfield outing, or whether the standing ovation he got walking off on Saturday was actually the goodbye nobody wanted to call a goodbye yet.
The result keeps Liverpool's Champions League qualification firmly in their own hands. Slot's side moved past Aston Villa into fourth with four games to play. Salah's hamstring, more than the table, is what Liverpool will spend the next few days waiting on.
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