Liverpool icon Sadio Mane breaks silence on ending Mohamed Salah's AFCON dream

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Liverpool star Mohamed Salah's hopes of leading Egypt to Africa Cup of Nations were dashed as former team-mate Sadio Mane scored the winner in their semi-final showdown00:02, 15 Jan 2026Updated 00:02, 15 Jan 2026Former Liverpool winger Sadio Mane has praised former teammate Mohamed Salah for his Egypt heroics after ending his Africa Cup of Nations hopes. The Senegal icon scored the only goal of the game as he booked his nation's place in Sunday's final against Morocco.For Salah, he will look to earn bronze against Nigeria as they were denied a place in the continent's showpiece match on penalties.

I'm happy [to be] in the final."The two shared an embrace as they prepared to make their way to the field, but the semi-final wasn't without incident, however, with Salah bringing his former teammate down to halt a breakaway, sparking a tussle between the respective benches.The Egyptian avoided punishment for the incident as both he and Mane played peace-makers in a bid to simmer the bubbling tensions in the high-stakes semi-final.Mane left Liverpool in 2022 to join Bayern Munich before ending his nightmare stint in Bavaria to join the Saudi Pro League exodus, linking up with Cristiano Ronaldo.It was a familiar feeling of disappointment for Salah against his former Liverpool strike partner after Senegal denied Egypt during the 2021 AFCON final.The tie was goalless after 120 minutes with Mane missing a penalty inside 10 minutes but he atoned for his error during the penalty shootout to claim a famous victory. The 4-2 win on spotkicks meant that Salah was denied the chance to salvage their place in the showpiece with Mohamed Abdelmonem and Mohanad Lasheen denied.Salah had performed heroics for Houssam Hassan's side during this instalment of the competition, netting four goals with only Brahim Diaz scoring more in the hunt for the golden boot.The 33-year-old scored in each of his first four appearances in the competition, with a decision being taken for him to be rested in the dead-rubber against Angola in their final Group B match, including key contributions against Zimbabwe and South Africa.Egypt manager Hassan launched an extraordinary rant in the wake of Egypt's semi-final exit.

Egypt is great and no one will dare to win seven titles like us."We just needed fairness like [Senegal]. By what FIFA law is what happened to the Egypt team done?"He continued.