There were no apologies from Mohamed Salah to his teammates in red on Monday night, with Egypt’s players grateful to Liverpool’s troubled superstar for conjuring a stoppage-time winner.
After failing to capitalise on a dominant start, the seven-times Afcon winners required a stunning equaliser from Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush and Salah’s late winner to spare their blushes against the aptly named Warriors from Zimbabwe, who have never progressed beyond the group stages.
Salah had sparkled initially before fading as his lack of recent playing time at Liverpool took its toll, but ended up making the decisive contribution as he swivelled in the penalty area to score with a scuffed left-foot half volley.
The sparsely populated bowl of the Grand Stade d’Agadir, which began the game with around 10% of its 45,000 seats occupied before the lowest of its three tiers eventually came close to filling up, is not the grandest of stages on which the so-called Egyptian King usually thrives, but neither is this tournament. For all the adoration he inspires in Egypt and throughout Africa the lack of an Afcon winner’s medal is the one major absence on Salah’s CV.
After losing in two finals in 2017 and 2022, Salah is desperate to fill that gap, all the more so given the possibility that his club career in Europe may be winding down, with several Saudi Pro League clubs ready to pounce on his unhappiness at Anfield.
Salah’s situation in this tournament could not be more different from the previous Afcon in Côte d’Ivoire two years ago when, ironic as it may now seem, he was accused of prioritising club over country. Egypt’s greatest player left that tournament early to return to Liverpool for treatment after a hamstring injury during a group stage game against Ghana, with the country’s most-capped player Ahmed Hassan accusing him of letting the nation down.
Salah appears to have found salvation in being reunited with his countrymen on this occasion, however, with Egypt’s coach Hossam Hassam saying “he regains his strength with the national team”, as he demonstrated by guiding them to a hard-fought win.
It was clear that the start that Salah has the freedom to roam as he wishes in this team, drifting into central areas and dropping deep to pick up possession in his own half as he saw fit. He remains most threatening from the right however, and twice in the space of one first-half minute he came close to conjuring the opening goal. A lofted cross to Trézéguet produced a header that was saved by Washington Arubi before Salah cut in from the right and had a shot from the edge of the penalty area blocked. Salah created another chance in the 12th minute for Eman Ashour, which he slashed wide, his last notable contribution of a truncated evening, which ended in the 34th minute when Hassam replaced him with big striker Mostafa Mohamed in a tactical switch after falling behind. Zimbabwe’s goal stunned Egypt, who should have been cruising at that stage. Instead they were caught on the counterattack, with Emmanuel Jalai crossing from the right to Prince Dube, who produced a wonderful turn and finish from the edge of the area.
Egypt continued to dominate in terms of possession, with Marmoush spurning several chances before delivering a sumptuous equaliser in the 64th minute. He collected the ball with immaculate control on the left flank before racing away from Godknows Murwira and beating Arubi with a powerful finish from a tight angle.
As Egypt pushed for a winner, their substitute Ahmed “Zizo” Sayed spurned two further chances, the latter created by Salah, who inevitably had the final word.
