Three years after their last appearance together, Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah find themselves on opposing teams on Wednesday as Senegal and Egypt battle it out for a place in the Africa Cup of Nations final.
The quarter-final in the Moroccan city of Tangier will be the first time the former Liverpool teammates have shared a pitch since the Anfield club lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League final in May 2022.
Shortly after, Mane left for Bayern Munich before joining Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League a year later.
Salah, meanwhile, is heavily linked with a move to Saudi Arabia in the near future, but remains at Liverpool for now despite falling out of favor with manager Arne Slot before appearing in the Nations Cup.
The Egypt captain is a man on a mission in Morocco, having scored four goals in four matches during the Pharaoh’s run to the semi-finals as they target AFCON victory for the first time.
Salah, who turns 34 in June, is running out of time to win a major international honor as his country suffered the agony of two final defeats in the competition.
After being part of the Egyptian team beaten by Cameroon in the 2017 final in Gabon, Salah led the team beaten on penalties by Senegal in 2022 in Yaoundé.
Mané saw a penalty saved in normal time on that dramatic evening at the Olembe Stadium, but recovered to score the decisive spot-kick in the penalty shootout as Senegal became African champions for the first time.
Salah was due to take Egypt’s next penalty but would not have the chance to intervene and was already on the verge of tears as Mané prepared to deliver the decisive blow.
Less than two months later, the teams met again in a decisive World Cup qualifying play-off and once again, penalties were required: Salah missed, Mané scored and Senegal won.
They then reached the round of 16 in Qatar while Egypt failed to qualify for the first World Cup held in the Arab world.
Both have qualified for the upcoming tournament in North America, giving the two veterans what may be their last chance to play on the biggest stage of them all.
Feel the pressure
For now, however, it’s about continental supremacy as Senegal aim for a third final in four editions of the AFCON, and Egypt aim to take another step towards a record eighth title overall.
Mané, who will also be 34 this year, will feel less pressure having already won a Nations Cup winner’s medal.
“No one, even in Egypt, wants to win this trophy more than me,” Salah admitted after helping his team beat Ivory Coast in the quarter-finals.
“I’ve won almost every award. This is the title I’ve been waiting for.”
The pair played together under Jurgen Klopp for five years between Salah’s arrival from Rome in 2017 and Mane’s departure.
They formed a formidable front line with Roberto Firmino and won the Champions League together in 2019 and the Premier League in 2020 – there were also two defeats to Real in the Champions League final.
But Mané recently admitted that sometimes the two men struggled to get along on the pitch.
“I think Mo is above all a very nice guy. I think even though on the pitch, sometimes he passed me and sometimes he didn’t,” Mané said on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast.
“Only Bobby (Firmino) was there to share the balls. Sometimes it was like that,” he added with a laugh.
“I still remember one game where I was really angry because he didn’t pass me the ball.”
This time, they are truly on opposing sides, as two former African Footballers of the Year look to lead their countries to glory – for the second time, in Mané’s case.
“The pressure for me is over. Before winning the African Cup, sometimes I played badly because of the pressure,” admitted Mané, who has one goal during this CAN, on the same podcast.
“All this on your shoulders is not easy,” he added, and Salah is well aware of that.
