Before Guinea-Bissau – Egypt: discreet for his first CAN match, Salah owes Egypt a revenge

In the running for the FIFA title of best footballer in the world, Mohamed Salah did not play like the best in Africa at CAN. He owes a revenge to Egypt, Saturday (8:00 p.m.) in Garoua against Guinea-Bissau. Three days before “FIFA The Best”, where the Liverpool striker is in competition with Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski, he will have to show more than his first outing at the African Cup.

Muzzled by the Nigeria defense in the first match, “Moh” Salah only created one chance, touched very few balls, and lost (1-0). For the time being, he is a “Pharaoh” without a heqa scepter, a toothless crocodile, much less sharp in selection than with the “Reds”. He remained dry during the qualifying matches for the 2020 World Cup, where Egypt still won their ticket to the play-offs, which will be drawn on January 22 in Douala during the CAN.

His report to the African Cup is mixed. Despite 4 goals in two appearances, and a shot on goal transformed in the 2017 semi-final against Burkina-Faso (1-1, 4 pens to 3), he lost a final, against Cameroon (2-1), this that year, and above all experienced the humiliation of a home elimination in 2019, from the round of 16, against South Africa, in front of 80,000 dumbfounded Cairotes.

No Firmino or Sané

Arrived injured at the 2018 World Cup, he scored two goals but his team lost all three matches. In short, he rarely gave the full measure of his talent in selection. In his defense, he does not have partners of the same caliber in the national team as in Liverpool. The Brazilian Firmino remained at Anfield, Moh needs to develop his complicity with his partners in the selection if he wants to have a chance to cross the Senegal of his partner Sadio Mané.

Placed in the center with Mostafa Mohamed (then Ramadan Sobhi), from Galatasaray, on the right, and the young Omar Marmoush (22), who is progressing in Germany in Stuttgart, on the left, he seemed lost in the first game. Nigerian manager, Augustine Eguavoen had “three things in mind” as he prepared for his match: “win, keep possession and cut links to Salah“. And the Green Eagles have done it perfectly.

Coach Carlos Queiroz, hired in September to replace Hossam El Badry, admitted that against Nigeria “the performance was very poor, it’s the truth, in the first half we weren’t on the pitch”.

“Best player on the planet”

But he supports his leader, “the best player on the planet right now“, even apologizing for this crime of lèse-majesté to his “you love Cristiano Ronaldo“laughs the Portuguese. Queiroz is also counting on the “winning mind” that “Mohamed Salah has and can instil in the whole team“.

The “Djurtus” (lycaons) seem a good sparring partner to launch the Liverpool star’s CAN. In progress, the Bissau-Guineans approach their third CAN in a row, they who had never played it before. But they have yet to win a match in the competition. They remain on a 0-0 against Sudan.

Even if the 24-team formula and the repechage of the four best third out of six does not threaten Egypt’s qualification, it risks finding a very tough opponent on its way from the round of 16, defending champion Algeria or the Ivory Coast. It would be in good taste for Salah to react, just before the “FIFAThe Best” award on Monday. The Egyptian, 7th in the Ballon d’Or, has his eye on this trophy. “I really can’t lie and say I don’t think about it. Yes, I think about it. I want to be the best footballer in the world“, he loose. His news is also agitated by the discussions around his contract extension with Liverpool, which expires in June 2023.

Salah, 111 goals in 165 Premier League appearances for the Reds, insists he’s asking ‘nothing out of the ordinary’. the British press mentions a weekly salary of 300,000 pounds (about 360,000 euros). Egypt asks him to be extraordinary.