Diogo Jota echoed the words of Cristiano Ronaldo after finally ending his goal drought in Liverpool’s 6-1 win at Leeds on Monday night. The 26-year-old bagged a brace at Elland Road – his first goals for Liverpool in over a year – with Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez also on the scoresheet. Jota has struggled for form and particularly fitness over the past 12 months and was clearly relieved to have found the back of the net again, likening it to ’emptying a ketchup bottle’, a somewhat bizarre analogy once used by his Portugal teammate Ronaldo. The legendary forward said scoring goals is like: ‘Opening a ketchup bottle. When the first drop comes out, everything comes out,’ in reference to his 16 month goal drought for Portugal ahead of the 2010 World Cup.
‘That’s one of the sentences Ronaldo said and it really stuck in my mind all these years,’ Jota told Sky Sports post-match. ‘I think football is unpredictable, and these are the things we like in this football game. Things can change very quick. Finally. It has been a hard season for me, for the team and it was a great relief for me. It was a mix but good feelings. I always want to be involved. I did an assist in the first half but I like to score more.’
Cristiano Ronaldo and Jota have been teammates for Portugal since 2019 (Photo: Getty)The win at Leeds was huge in more than one way for Liverpool, as it was their first victory since the 7-0 thrashing of arch-rivals Manchester United at the start of March. The Reds have remained eighth in the table and though their chances of finishing in the top four are looking slim, these three points have at least kept them in the race for Champions League football.
‘I think especially second half we played really well. We kept possession, we tried to find ourselves in good positions. We scored great goals and deserved the win,’ Jota added. ‘Some games we looked really good and others we cannot really click, especially away from home. But that is in the past and we have to do games like this, because we can. We have great results this season, great scorelines. So we have these results before but we just need to keep our feet on the ground and go onto the next one.’
Jota and Liverpool will be hoping for more goals and another win when they host struggling Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Cristiano Ronaldo’s words about scoring goals being like ‘opening a ketchup bottle’ stuck with Diogo Jota for years and he finally got to put it into practice when he scored his first Liverpool goal in over a year against Leeds on Monday night. Jota bagged a brace at Elland Road with Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez also on the scoresheet.
The win at Leeds was huge for Liverpool, as it was their first victory since the 7-0 thrashing of arch-rivals Manchester United at the start of March. The Reds have remained eighth in the table and though their chances of finishing in the top four are looking slim, these three points have at least kept them in the race for Champions League football. Jota said post-match that it was a great relief to finally score again and that they need to keep their feet on the ground and go onto the next game. He and Liverpool will be hoping for more goals and another win when they host struggling Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
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