Mohamed Salah’s hopes of returning to Egypt to lead them to Africa Cup of Nations glory are over after the Pharaohs were stunned by DR Congo.
The seven-time champions were hoping to win the tournament for the first time since 2010 with Salah desperate to lift the trophy that remains absent from his CV. He’ll have watched on from England however, continuing his rehab from an injury, as Egypt were dumped out 8-7 on penalties.
The last 16 contest ended 1-1 after 120 minutes with Meschack Elia putting DR Congo, ranked 67th in the world, on the cusp of an upset. That only lasted nine minutes though as Mostafa Mohamed converted a penalty on the stroke of half-time.
Penalties were needed to settle the contest and DR Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi scored the 18th penalty of a pulsating shoot-out to send the underdogs through to the last eight.
Pharaohs keeper Gabaski had seen his effort hit the top of the crossbar in the ninth round of the shoot-out, which gave Mpasi his moment of glory. It means Egypt exit the tournament having failed to win a single game following three successive draws in the group stages.
They were without Salah who was ruled out with a hamstring issue and returned to Liverpool to recover from his injury with the hope of returning to Africa to join up with his country in the latter stages, but that is no longer a possibility.
His and Egypt’s frustration is perhaps a positive for the Reds, who can potentially bring him back into the fold sooner than expected. Salah and his country were beaten finalists in the last edition of the tournament, but failed to even match that feat this time round.
Recently Salah had underlined his desire to eventually win the tournament: “I have won everything possible but this one not yet. Everybody knows what it means to any player to win an Africa Cup. We were unlucky at the last one and also in Gabon. The players are very motivated to win the tournament. We all want to win it.”
The last time DR Congo beat Egypt in an AFCON clash was in the semi-finals 50 years ago – the year they went on to lift the trophy. They will now play Guinea on Friday.
