Mohamed Salah admits Liverpool 'panic' over Premier League claims

Mohamed Salah of Liverpool during a training session on August 16, 2020 in Salzburg, Austria.

Mohamed Salah admits some inside the Liverpool squad started to "panic" when cancelling the Premier League season was a genuine prospect.

The Reds were 25 points clear at the top and just a half-dozen more from a first title in 30 years when football was placed on pause in mid-March because of the outbreak of the coronavirus in the UK.

It wasn't until the first week of June that it was confirmed that the Premier League would return to give Jurgen Klopp's side the chance to finish what they had started back in August 2019.

Liverpool eventually wrapped up their maiden Premier League title and first since 1990 in a record-setting 31 games after Manchester City were beaten by Chelsea 24 hours after the Reds had beaten Crystal Palace 4-0 at Anfield on June 24.

In a brand new BBC documentary on Liverpool's success, titled 'Liverpool FC: The 30 Year Wait', Salah details the mood inside the camp following the suggestions that the entire campaign could be scrapped.

"I always said from my first interview with this club that I wanted to win the Premier League," Salah says. "They would say I am crazy, but yes, we did it.

"In the beginning of the season, you want to win it so bad, you want to achieve something for the club which and the main target was the Premier League. 

"When you beat Manchester City (at Anfield in November), it gives you more confidence because they are the champions.

"I was excited after the goal (against Manchester United) and the response from the fans was crazy. It was really special for everybody.

"[After that] people were saying cancel the league, some people were saying that you cannot play any more.

"It was stress somehow and maybe everyone [inside the club] started to panic, but I was at home during that time with the family and I never had that time before, so I was using it to enjoy it.

"It was tough as well to think that after such a long season, after that year, that they are going to cancel the Premier League again. That's bad! (laughs).

"To be with your team-mates at that time (when it was confirmed), it was something special."

In a 90-minute documentary which airs on Sunday evening, Salah's experiences in the 2018 and '19 Champions League finals are detailed.

After a 44-goal debut season at Liverpool, Salah suffered a teary end to his campaign in the 2018 European Cup final when he was wrestled to the ground by Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos.

A shoulder injury brought Salah's participation in the biggest game in club football to an abrupt end before the issue continued to trouble him during Egypt's World Cup campaign in Russia later that year.

Salah adds: "I don't know how to describe it but it was so sad for me.

"It was like one of my worst times in football. I don't know, I don't want to get too emotional with that but it was really bad."

Just over a year later, however, Salah and his Liverpool team-mates would put their defeat to rest when they beat Tottenham 2-0 in Madrid to lift the club's sixth European Cup.

And the man affectionately dubbed the 'Egyptian King' explained how a pre-match team chat helped focus minds.

"We were having dinner before the game," Salah says. "It was me, Bobby (Firmino), Ali (Alisson), Virg (Van Dijk), Dejan (Lovren), a big group of us and Gini (Wijnaldum) was talking like 'we cannot lose two finals in a row, it just doesn't work'.

"If you do that in the Champions League then no-one would remember you because in the end, you win nothing.

"You didn't win the Premier League, you didn't win the Champions League two years in a row, it was too much pressure to be honest."

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