Egypt have asked for their World Cup qualifier against Senegal to be relayed after they claimed Mo Salah was "attacked" in "a strange atmoshpere".
The Pharaohs headed to Dakar looking to defend a 1-0 first-leg lead and qualify for the global event for the second successive tournament following their appearance in 2018. Senegal managed to level the tie early on as Hamdi Fathi put through his own net after four minutes.
It meant the two nations would, once again, settle a major affair on penalties after their AFCON final went the same way. It would again be Senegal who triumphed, winning the shootout 3-1. Salah missed his spot kick, blazing over whilst facing a wall of jeers and laser attacks as the home crowd succeeded in putting off the Liverpool man.
Egypt have been left angered by the manner in which their failure came about. Coach Carlos Queiroz has already left his post, but a complaint has been lodged with FIFA which includes a request to replay the game. Gamal Allam, the head of the Egyptian FA, said, as quoted by Youm7 Sport : "Hani Abu Rida, Hassan Mustafa and the Egyptian officials in the African and International Federations must intervene to support the Egyptian team.
"I am on my way to Qatar to attend the FIFA Congress on Thursday afternoon. We asked to meet FIFA President Gianni Infantino as well as Patrice Motsepe, President of the Confederation of African Football. We asked for a replay of the match because the match was held in a strange atmosphere, and if we had lost in normal circumstances, we would have congratulated Senegal.
"We will present what happened to the disciplinary committee in the Federation and await a response. There are many things that happened with us in the match. Our players were attacked. Mohamed Salah had the most share of the Senegalese fans' attack on him, which tried to intimidate the players as well, and we asked that the board of directors be on the bench of the match but they refused."
Another African play-off saw Cameroon see off Algeria, but the Algerian authorities are following Egypt's lead by requesting a replay, according to La Gazette du Fennec. Cameroon progressed on away goals but Algeria have aired issues with some of the decisions, which twice saw goals disallowed.
Who will win the World Cup? Let us know in the comments
Currently Salah, one of the world's leading lights, will not be present in Qatar this winter. He scored at the last World Cup in Russia but has given no assurances that he could push for the next tournament in 2024, despite still being of an age where he will be influential.
“I am honoured that I played with you and I am very proud to play with you, whether I am with you or not in the future,” he told his international colleagues, in a clip on social media. Sadio Mane has twice for the better of his Liverpool teammate in recent months, but delivered a humble message to his colleague.
"I won twice and he (Salah) lost twice, I was luckier to come out on top," he told ONTime Sports, per KingFut. "I am very proud that we won the Africa Cup of Nations and now qualified for the World Cup, it's a dream I had. I believe it was a difficult game for both teams. Our fans pushed us to win and we didn't stop fighting. We knew the game wouldn't be easy, but we pressed to score."
