Egypt forwards Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush celebrate during the Africa Cup of Nations opener against Zimbabwe

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah was Egypt’s hero in its first game at AFCON as the 33-year-old netted a stoppage-time winner to ensure his country made a winning start in Morocco.

Egypt had fallen behind before the Manchester City forward Omar Marmoush leveled things up with around a third of the match still to play. Salah then stepped up in the 91st minute to edge Egypt over the line.

Both Premier League stars played well in the game, and Egypt was deserving of the victory. It had almost 10 times as many expected goals and took 35 shots to Zimbabwe’s eight.

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It was Salah’s quality and composure that got Egypt over the line, though. The Liverpool ace made the telling difference, putting his country in a strong position to qualify, as it would expect to as one of the favorites to go all the way.

While Salah scored the winner, he wasn’t named the official Player of the Match. That honor was given to Marmoush instead.

“The win is more important than the prize,” the Manchester City attacker told BeIN Sports after the game. “We will now focus on the match against South Africa.”



Mohamed Salah scored the winner for Egypt in the team’s opening AFCON game against Zimbabwe(Image: Getty Images)

Egypt will play South Africa on Friday (December 26th) and a win would send it through to the knockout phase. It then has Angola on Monday (December 29th).

The final is on January 18th, so Salah could be absent for Liverpool until then if Egypt goes all the way. In that period, the Reds will play Wolves, Leeds, Fulham, Arsenal, Barnsley (FA Cup) and Burnley.

Before departing for the tournament, of course, Salah made headlines with his public outburst against Liverpool and his club head coach, Arne Slot.

While he came back into the team and played well against Brighton, it doesn’t feel like that situation is completely over. Salah and the Liverpool boss will be asked about their relationship again when the time comes for him to return to Merseyside.

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“I said last week, actions speak louder than words,” Slot said ahead of Liverpool beating Tottenham. “We moved on, he was in the squad, and he was the first substitution I made.

“Now he’s at the AFCON, playing big games for himself and also for his country, so I think it’s fair to them that all the focus is, for him, over there. But definitely also for us, because we are going to play some very important games.

“There should not be any distractions from me saying anything about his time here at Liverpool, because as I said, we’ve moved on after the Leeds interview, and he played against Brighton.

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“Now he’s there, so it’s fair for the country and for him and also for us to talk, for us, about Tottenham and other games, and for them to be fully focused on their tournament.”