DAKAR (Senegal) – March 30 (ONLINE) Egypt’s star forward Mohamed Salah missed his spot-kick as Senegal beat them in a penalty shootout to knock them out of the World Cup qualifiers.
After the African playoff between the two teams ended 1-1 on aggregate, Senegal won the penalty shootout 3-1 to book a berth in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Salah was among the three Egypt players who missed their spot-kicks, but the Liverpool star was distracted, with fans flashing lasers at him as he got ready to take his penalty.
He ended up, rather uncharacteristically, blazing his shot high over the bar.
Salah’s Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane hit the winning penalty for Senegal.
Senegal won the second leg of the African play-off 1-0 in Diamniadio thanks to a fourth-minute goal from Boulaye Dia and the teams finished level at 1-1 on aggregate after extra time.
As was the case in the Africa Cup of Nations final last month, Mane was entrusted with taking the crucial fifth Senegal kick and once again he made no mistake to give his side a 3-1 shoot-out victory.
Only four of the nine penalty takers were successful with Captain Kalidou Koulibaly and Saliou Ciss missing for Senegal and Salah, ‘Zizo’ and Mostafa Mohamed for Egypt.
As Senegal celebrated a second straight qualification for the World Cup, Egypt were left to lament another dramatic loss to Senegal this year.
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