No sooner has Sadio Mane helped crush Mohamed Salah's World Cup dream is the Senegal forward already turning his attentions to doing the same to another Liverpool colleague in Qatar.
Mane was on the winning side as Senegal knocked Egypt out of qualifying last week with a 3-1 penalty shootout victory, in which Salah blazed his spot kick over the crossbar after being bombarded by lasers from the opposing supporters. It will be Mane's second World Cup, having featured for his country back in 2018.
And he will feel confident of going one better than his last experience and reaching the knockout stages after Senegal were handed a decent draw for the group phase. But Mane will no doubt have been quick to realise his first match at the tournament will see him come up against Liverpool teammate Virgil van Dijk.
Senegal meet Netherlands in their first fixture at the tournament on November 21. The two nations have never played against each other previously. Qatar and Ecuador will face each other in the tournament curtain-raiser, which is the other game on that date in Group A.
Louis van Gaal's Netherlands are the favourites to top that group and pose a challenge to win the tournament outright having lost just once during qualifying. The Dutch were surprisingly knocked out of Euro 2020 at the hands of Czech Republic in the last 16 stage, conceding twice after Matthijs de Ligt had been sent off, though van Dijk did not play any part at the tournament.
Indeed, the World Cup will be van Dijk's first major tournament at international level, after he missed last summer's competition as he continued his recovery from a serious knee injury. When fit, van Dijk did make a key contribution to Netherlands' run to the 2019 Nations League final, during which they beat England en route.
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And the towering defender has already sent a warning to Mane ahead of the World Cup after he reacted to Salah's heartbreaking exit. "Well obviously, I feel sorry for Mo and for Egypt, but football is sometimes like this," Van Dijk said earlier this week.
"I am sure he will turn the disappointment into success for the rest of the season. We still have everything to play for so there is a lot of things still to achieve for him. As for Sadio, I wish him all the best and if he is in our group, he is going to need that good luck."
Netherlands boss Louis van Gaal reacted to the draw by admitting he was uncertain whether his team can be thankful or not. “I don’t know if this is a nice draw, I don’t know much about these countries," van Gaal conceded. "I have been in Senegal on holiday two years ago, I have never been in Ecuador, I have never seen Qatar play."
Meanwhile England were drawn against USA, Iran and one of either Wales, Scotland or Ukraine. The tie of the Group Stage is undoubtedly Spain vs Germany, who were both drawn in Group E, while Argentine will meet Mexico and Poland, and Portugal will face Uruguay.
