After the last of the lasers had been shone and he was hurried down the tunnel, Mohamed Salah would have had time to reflect.
There will be no World Cup for the forward and his beloved Egypt later this year in Qatar, a country in which he was treated like a God when Liverpool won the Club World Cup there in 2019.
That will be a huge blow to a man desperate to prove that he deserves a spot at the very pinnacle of the modern game, and also the acclaim that comes with it, but it is also likely to reawaken his by now almost legendary desire.
