Lasers, penalty miss, World Cup knockout, attack by Senegal fans, trolls - Salah's night of horror
The Egyptian captain faced a barrage of lasers before wildly missing a pivotal penalty as the Pharaohs faced yet another shootout defeat by Senegal.
FollowThe Qatar World Cup 2022 will take place without Egypt and Liverpool's star striker Mohamed Salah. Yes, it may be hard to imagine football's top international tournament without Premier League's top goalscorer this season, but what is perhaps more upsetting is how the 29-year-old's World Cup hopes ended. It was a night when Salah was targeted and saw the beautiful game of football be brought to shame.
The Egyptian captain faced a barrage of lasers before wildly missing a pivotal penalty as the Pharaohs faced yet another shootout defeat by Senegal. Salah's club teammate Sadio Mané converted his spot-kick to send the Africa Cup of Nations champions to this winter's showpiece event in Qatar.
In a bid to give their country the upper hand during the crucial World Cup play-off tie versus Egypt on Tuesday, Senegal fans resorted to dirty tactics by targeting opponent team players with a shower of green laser beams throughout the fixture.
Senegal won the second leg of the African play-off 1-0 in Diamniadio thanks to a fourth-minute goal from Boulaye Dia, and the teams finished level at 1-1 on aggregate after extra time.
As was the case in the Africa Cup of Nations final last month, Mane was entrusted with taking the crucial fifth Senegal kick and once again, he made no mistake to give his side a 3-1 shootout victory.
Sane's Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah, who uncharacteristically blazed his kick over the crossbar, was among the three Egyptians who failed to score in the shootout.
As Senegal celebrated a second straight qualification for the World Cup, Egypt was left to lament another dramatic loss to Senegal this year. But, if that was not enough, Mohamed Salah's night of horror continued. In a video that has gone viral, Senegal fans are seen trying to attack the Egyptian captain as he was coming off the pitch after the final whistle.
The Liverpool forward, who appears to be distressed, can be seen escorted by security officials to the dressing room even as Sengalese fans threw a barrage of objects toward Salah.
Following this shocking incident, the Egyptian Football Association said its players, Salah in particular, were the subject of racist abuse from Senegal fans during their World Cup play-off game.Â
As well as abuse from the stands, the Egyptian FA claimed their team were attacked with rocks and bottles on the bus before the match in Dakar, posting several images to their Instagram page as "proof". It is unclear whether they will appeal the result, with many feeling the lasers could have adversely affected Salah before his penalty.
A statement from the Egypt FA said: "The Egypt national team have been exposed to racism with offensive signs in the stands against the Egyptian players in general, and Mohamed Salah in particular."
"The crowd also intimidated the players by throwing bottles and rocks at them during the warm-up. The Egyptian group's busses have also been exposed to assaults that led to broken windows and injuries; filed with pictures and videos as proof in the complaint submitted," the statement added.
If the on-field drama was not frustrating enough for Salah, the Egyptian captain was also not spared by social media trolls. The micro-blogging site was flooded with several tweets mocking Salah when the star striker missed the penalty.
However, in some consolation for the Liverpool star, a few stood by Salah and asked him to stay strong in these tough times. After all, there are always positive takeaways from an incident of this stature. Liverpool, Egypt and Salah fans would be hoping their favourite striker sees this and overcomes his night of horror.
