Diogo Jota has revealed how advice from Cristiano Ronaldo helped him end his long wait for a Liverpool goal.
Jota scored for the Reds for the first time in more than a year as he bagged a brace in the thumping 6-1 success at Leeds United on Monday night.
The 26-year-old has struggled to find the net after twice being sidelined by serious injury in the past 12 months. But after breaking his duck, Jota recalled an analogy used by his Portugal team-mate Ronaldo.
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The Manchester United and Real Madrid legend endured a barren 16-month run without a goal for the Portuguese national team earlier in his illustrious career. And speaking before he ended that run by scoring in a 7-0 success over North Korea at the 2010 World Cup, Ronaldo said: “Goals, as a football legend once told me, are like ketchup.
“Sometimes as much as you try, they don’t come out, and when they come, many come all at same time.”
Jota never forgot those words from Ronaldo, who has gone to score a world record 122 international goals, and now he's hoping the floodgates will open at Liverpool.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the emphatic win at Elland Road, the former Wolves forward said: 'That's one of the sentences Ronaldo said and it really stuck in my mind all these years.
"I think football is unpredictable, and these are the things we like in this football game. Things can change very quick."
The win moved the Reds within nine points of fourth-placed Newcastle United going into Saturday's home clash with relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest.
And Jota, who has now scored 36 goals in 105 appearances at Anfield, said: "We have great results this season, great scorelines - 7-0, 9-0. So we have these results before but we just need to stick with our feet on the ground because the next one is a completely different game."
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