Trent Alexander-Arnold jokes Mohamed Salah's so good in training some days that he does not like him

There are days at Liverpool's Melwood training ground when Trent Alexander-Arnold is not Mohamed Salah's biggest fan, but the teenage prodigy would not wish to have it any other way.

Salah’s extraordinary debut year at Anfield scaled new heights on Tuesday with a sublime brace of goals in the 5-2 Champions League semi-final victory over Roma, his former club.

The Egyptian’s 42nd and 43rd goals of the season not only gave Jurgen Klopp’s side one foot in next months’ Kiev final but also saw Salah close in on Ian Rush’s record for the most goals scored in a single Liverpool season.

Four more in Liverpool’s four - or five - remaining fixtures will match Rush’s 47 in the 1983/84 season - a year which ended with the European Cup on Merseyside.

Salah’s form comes as no surprise to Alexander-Arnold, one of Liverpool’s unfortunate full backs that must come up against the Egyptian regularly in training.

“During the week it's a nightmare because you're up against him,” Alexander-Arnold said on Tuesday night while reflecting on Salah’s display. “During the week, there's sometimes I don't really like him because he does that stuff to me!

“That's what he does day in day out. It's just become second nature to him now and it's a credit to him. We're really happy to playing with him rather than against him.”

There are long-term benefits, as well as short-term drawbacks, to coming up against such quality on a regular basis.

“That's the good thing about it,” Alexander-Arnold added. “You know during the week you're preparing well for the opposition and you know this is the level you're going to be up against, if not higher. It's good preparation going into the games.

“We know sometimes if we hit it into the channels there'll be a runner on the end of it and more times than not it's Mo on the right side. He'll get on the end of it and make something happen, which is a credit to him.”

Everything went perfectly at one end of the pitch on Tuesday, Liverpool allowed Roma to breach their defence twice in the closing stages and gifted Eusebio di Francesco’s side a lifeline ahead of next week’s second leg.

“It's hard not to get carried away with the atmosphere and the result at the time,” Alexander-Arnold said of Roma’s comeback.

“I think looking back at it now it was a concentration thing. Maybe in the last 15 minutes we lost our concentration, which is hard to do when you're 5-0 up in a Champions League game. I think all the lads and me will learn from that.”

Roma produced one of most remarkable turnarounds in European Cup history earlier this month to eliminate Barcelona on away goals after losing 4-1 at the Nou Camp.

“You can never write a team off, especially in the Champions League because it's a hard tournament. We know what they did in the last round to Barcelona. It was really special,” Alexander-Arnold said.

“We all know about that but we'll go there, try and score goals and try stop them from scoring goals. That's the way football works so that's what we'll try and do.”