Mohamed Salah is currently away on international duty at the African Cup of Nations. Having twice now lost out on winning the tournament in the final – he will be hoping third time’s the charm.
However, Egypt’s opening game didn’t quite go according to plan yesterday.
Coming up against Mozambique, Salah’s side were expected to pull off a comfortable victory. But in the end, they had to score a last-gasp equaliser to salvage a point. The 97th minute equaliser was scored courtesy by Salah himself – who stepped up and thumped the ball in the back of the net.
Meanwhile, he was also involved in Egypt’s first goal, scuffing his shot into the path of Mostafa Mohamed – who buried the ball into the back of the net. Salah’s involvement technically counted as an assist.
But despite the goal and the assist not everyone was impressed by Salah’s performance.
Mohamed Salah slammed
Former Egypt international Tariq Al-Saye was less than impressed by Salah’s performance. Speaking on the Al-Shams Stadium program with Magdy Abdel-Ghani he slammed the Liverpool star.
“Mohamed Salah’s performance yesterday against the Mozambique national team was weak, and I hope that Vitoria will play [him] in his place.”
He added: “The Egyptian national team’s performance declined severely against Mozambique, and it appeared the opposite of what we imagined or expected, and the Egyptian national team had to respect the Mozambique team.”
Egypt’s opening result was clearly a tough one to take. Salah’s team is in a tough group with Ghana coming up next, and then Cape Verde. There are high expectations on Egypt to finally win the trophy with Salah.
However, based on the first game – that’s not looking likely at this stage.
