Mohamed Salah Salvages Point in Egypt AFCON Opener
The Egyptian King helped stave off an unlikely upset in the opening match of group play today.
The other Liverpool player in international action today was none other than Liverpool FC’s forward Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian King was in action as Egypt opened up their African Cup of Nations tournament run with a tie against Mozambique. The Pharaohs are favorites in the tournament thanks in large part to Mo, who also serves as the captain for the squad.
The fixture started off in relatively expected fashion as Egypt took an early lead inside of two minutes via striker Mostafa Mohamad. Moazmbique, however, were stubborn enough and managed to hold Egypt while securing two goals to put them up.
Just as it looked like an upset was in the cards, though, Egypt received a penalty shout 7 minutes into injury time. Mohamed Salah stepped up to take the penalty and buried it, ensuring that their start to AFCON, though perhaps a bit wobbly, wasn’t entirely tarnished.
Looking at the stats, it would appear that Mo would have felt the script playing out rather familiarly; Egypt out shot and out possessed Mozambique by a significant amount. The Liverpool winger’s contribution, then, helped to prevent what looked to be a bit of a smash and grab.
With both Liverpool players’ opening matches in the books - and both of Wataru Endo and Salah going the full 90’ (and the latter getting an additional 10+ minutes of stoppage time to boot) - the hope for Reds around the world is that the players get rest and stay fit. And, if they are to progress, perhaps a blow out or two to create some dead rubbers/allow for them to be subbed off.
It’s a lot of asks to be sure, given the standing of both players within their national team set ups. But it is perhaps the least harmful of selfish wishes we can put out there as we wait patiently for our stars to come back to Merseyside.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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