Roma director Monchi has responded to criticism over their decision to sell Salah last summer, saying that their hand had been forced in compliance with Financial Fair Play obligations.
On Tuesday, Salah produced yet another stellar performance, netting his 42nd and 43rd goals of the season in the 5-2 victory in the first-leg of the Champions League semi-final clash.
Monchi, who was director of football during Salah's transfer, is insistent that Roma were put under increasing pressure to comply with UEFA's financial regulations.
He said: ''I sold him for more than €42million. We had a need to sell. We had no option but to sell Salah before June 30. Had we not done that, we probably wouldn't be here playing the semi-final of the Champions League as we had UEFA closely monitoring us.''
Monchi added: ''We didn't want to sell him but we had no choice. We had to take an offer before the end of the month. He wanted to leave, but we would have kept him if the regulations weren't against us.
"When I arrived, the offer [from Liverpool] was €30million but we managed to get it up to almost €50million with bonuses. That is what we could do. The market then went crazy with Neymar, Coutinho and Dembele.''
He added: ''He's had an extraordinary season. Of course people have questioned why we sold him. We congratulate Liverpool for buying him. We had to sell him and the player wanted to leave. Unfortunately, we suffered that on Tuesday night because we know of his quality. He is a very strong player.''
The return leg takes place next Wednesday in Rome.