Arne Slot saluted Mohamed Salah’s professionalism and singled out Joe Gomez for praise after Liverpool climbed to fourth in the Champions League table with a commanding win in Marseille.

Liverpool, who host Qarabag at Anfield next week in their final group game, delivered a fine performance and result against Roberto De ­Zerbi’s team to record a ninth win in 11 ­European away fixtures.

Salah played the entire game on his return from the Africa Cup of Nations and, despite missing a gilt‑edged chance late on, contributed to a win that could enable Liverpool to avoid the playoffs next month.

“It says a lot about how big a professional he is that he can be away for more than a month with a different team and be so fit to play 90 for us after one day’s training,” Slot said.

“He was so close to a goal, it would usually be a goal from him, but it didn’t harm us because we scored three. I saw a lot of good individual performances tonight but I would like to single out Joe Gomez. He has suffered a lot with injuries in the last few years and I haven’t picked him sometimes when he has been fit. Tonight he was outstanding and so important to us winning 3-0.”

The Liverpool head coach claimed his side was more creative when drawing against ­Burnley on Saturday than in Marseille but Hamed Traoré’s miss, at 1-0, had been a key moment.

Slot said: “It’s always difficult to play Marseille because of their passionate fans and the quality of their players, but what makes it even harder is the quality of their ­manager. We were prepared for that. We took the ball off them three or four times in the first half but couldn’t find the player who was completely free, apart from one time and he was fractionally offside.

“On the ball we were controlled but what made the difference this time was that after we had a big chance and hit the post, they had a big chance and put it over. Usually this season that goes in. But we were able to make it 2-0, 3-0 and so that makes the perception of the game completely different.

“Against Burnley we created three or four times more than we did tonight but tonight we scored three. Everyone can disagree with me but we played a very good game against Burnley and another good game tonight, but the tactics were different.”

Dominik Szoboszlai opened the scoring with a free-kick swept under a Marseille wall that had no draught excluder behind. “I did my homework,” he said. “I got told that if nobody is laying down then maybe I can have a chance to hit it under the wall. No-one was laying down so I tried it and it worked out.”