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It is often said that thunder does not strike twice in the same place, but that was proved wrong Tuesday Sadio Mane disarmed Liverpool teammate Mohammed Salah again in the final of the world cup play-off to lead the Taranga Lions to the World cup.
Recall that Senegal defeated Egypt to lift the Nations cup in Cameroon and every talk after that was about Egypt taking revenge in the two legged world cup play-off. Although Egypt flagged of the play-off in that revenge direction by winning the first leg by a lone goal in Cairo, but the return leg Tuesday proved a hard nut to Crack. The two teams played out a 1-1 draw in Dakar and went into extra time and subsequently into penalties which the Senegalese won 3-1.
The second leg of their play-off went to a nerve-shredding penalty shootout. And like at the Africa Cup of Nations, Mane fired home the winning spot-kick. Salah went first for Egypt but skied his effort.
The match was somewhat overshadowed with lasers from the crowd being continuously pointed at players from both sides throughout, including during the shootout.
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The Pharaoh’s won the first leg 1-0 but that lead was wiped out within four minutes of the second leg’s strart as Hamdi Fathi’s own goal opened the scoring.
And like it did in the final of AFCON, the clash ended up going to penalties, which Senegal won.
Salah missed his penalty but there will surely be an inquest into the use of lasers throughout the match
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