“Going to be rivals,” Mohamed Salah Makes a Fascinating Claim About Sadio Mane Ahead of AFCON Final

“Going to be rivals,” Mohamed Salah Makes a Fascinating Claim About Sadio Mane Ahead of AFCON Final. Mohamed Salah has admitted that he and Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane will only be ‘rivals’ for one game as Egypt prepares to face Senegal in the Africa Cup of Nations final.

Regardless of the fact that Naby Keita was eliminated in the round of 16 by Guinea, one of Salah and Mane’s tournaments will end in heartbreak after reaching the final.

Senegal was one of the tournament favourites before the first ball was kicked, while Egypt beat Ivory Coast, Morocco, and Cameroon against the odds.

The Liverpool duo will go head-to-head in Sunday’s star-studded match, which Salah is looking forward to.

“It’s great to play against Senegal as a team and also against Sadio,” he told reporters at a pre-match press conference.

“We are going to be rivals and after the game, we will be teammates again.

“We had a small chat after the Morocco game, we saw each other and I was checking how his head was. I said hopefully we would meet in the final and have a good game.”

Mohamed Salah on facing Sadio Mane in the AFCON final:

"Tomorrow we are going to be rivals. After tomorrow we are going to be team mates again." @NjieEnowpic.twitter.com/2M5h8jZwIX

— DaveOCKOP (@DaveOCKOP) February 5, 2022

Neither Mane nor Salah has previously won an AFCON, though the former came close in 2019, losing in the final to Algeria.

Victory for Salah would only enhance his prestige as undoubtedly the best player in the world on current form, bolstering his case for the Ballon d’Or next year.

The 29-year-old has won silverware at club level with both Basel and Liverpool, but he has now set his sights on the ‘special’ feeling that delivering for his home nation on the world arena would bring.