It was only a matter of time before Mohamed Salah found the back of the net for Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations. The Liverpool star hardly had a sight of goal in Egypt’s opener against Nigeria. He still had few opportunities in front of his opponent’s goal on Saturday, but Salah was the man to make the breakthrough as he and his side defeated Guinea-Bissau 1-0.
Salah Goal Vs. Guinea-Bissau
Mo Salah scores his first goal for Egypt in #AFCON2021
(via @ESbeINSPORTS)— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) January 15, 2022
Who else?#MoSalah fires #TeamEgypt to their first win. #AFCON2021 | @MoSalah | @EFA pic.twitter.com/vfkibWWh20
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) January 15, 2022
In the 69th minute Salah caught a volley perfectly and snuck his shot below Guinea-Bissau's goalkeeper. This was his 46th goal for his country. Salah is only 22 goals behind Egypt’s all-time leading scorer, Hossam Hassan.
The other big talking point of the game was a controversial VAR decision overturning what could have been the goal of the tournament. Guinea-Bissau’s Mama Balde thought he has scored an iconic goal in his country’s history to draw level with African giants Egypt.
What a goal this would have been.
The referee and VAR made the decision that Balde had committed a foul in the build-up to the goal. Balde and the Egyptian defender were both fighting for the ball, personally this writer thinks that the referee crew got the call wrong.
This was how Twitter reacted to VAR’s decision.
VAR please leave Balde's goal alone... PLEASE!!! https://t.co/vE7k5cAiVa
— Austin Okon-Akpan (@ProudlyAustin) January 15, 2022
We have clowns sitting in that VAR room! What’s wrong with Balde’s goal? ♂️ #TeamGuineaBissau #AFCON2021
— Ö L A W A L E (@pulsatile007) January 15, 2022
NO GOAL! #TeamEgypt 1-0 #TeamGuineaBissau
VAR rules out a goal from Balde that Mo Salah would have been proud of... I think slow motion makes it look worse - and never looks like a 'clear and obvious' error by the referee #AFCON2021— Nick Cavell BBC Africa (@BBC_NickCavell) January 15, 2022
The 1-0 result takes Egypt to three points and second in Group D. The final game of the group stage for Salah and company will be against bottom of the group Sudan. Meanwhile Guinea-Bissau goes to third in the group and will need a result against Nigeria for any hope of the knockout stages.
