Goal-shy Salah seeks change as Egypt eye World Cup place

Mohamed Salah wants to enactment a disappointing commencement to his play with Liverpool down him connected Wednesday and assistance Egypt bushed Djibouti and suffice for the 2026 World Cup.

A triumph for the grounds seven-time African champions implicit 1 of the lowest ranked teams successful the continent volition springiness them an unassailable pb implicit second-placed Burkina Faso successful Group A with 1 lucifer to spare.

A two-time African Footballer of the Year, Salah has mislaid his spark with the Premier League champions, scoring conscionable 3 goals successful 9 appearances successful each competitions this season.

Last season, the 33-year-old netted 29 times successful 38 league matches to triumph the Golden Boot grant arsenic Liverpool surged to a record-equalling 20th Premier League title.

Salah has fond memories of playing against Djibouti, scoring 4 goals successful a 6-0 Cairo romp successful the opening circular of World Cup qualifying 2 years ago.

It does not assistance Djibouti that they bash not person a FIFA-approved stadium, truthful their ‘home’ lucifer against Egypt volition beryllium staged successful the Moroccan commercialized superior Casablanca.

Three consequent goals took Salah to 7 successful the qualifying campaign, 1 little than chart-topper Denis Bouanga of Gabon with 2 rounds remaining.

Fellow Egypt guardant Mostafa Mohamed, who plays for French Ligue 1 outfit Nantes, is not acrophobic astir Salah, telling reporters the deficiency of goals is “a impermanent setback”.

“Mo is simply a large star, and we are fortunate to person him successful our team. He is the champion subordinate successful the past of Egypt,” helium told the FIFA website.

“He is amazing. For me, helium has a large personality. I emotion him a lot. He is simply a fantastic player,” added Mohamed, who besides scored against Djibouti.

Egypt manager Hossam Hassan has an embarrassment of attacking riches, Apart from Salah and Mohamed, helium tin telephone connected Omar Marmoush, Mahmoud ‘Trezeguet’ Hassan and Ahmed ‘Zizo’ Sayed.

Given Djibouti person mislaid 7 of 8 qualifiers and prevarication 158 places beneath Egypt successful the FIFA rankings, it would beryllium a daze if they forestall the Pharaohs sealing a 4th World Cup appearance.

– Algeria acceptable to suffice –

Algeria and Cape Verde are the different 2 countries who tin clinch places astatine the World Cup with matchday 9 victories, and articulation already-qualified Morocco and Tunisia successful North and Central America adjacent year.

Senegal, reigning African champions Ivory Coast and Ghana could besides instrumentality unassailable leads, but they indispensable triumph and anticipation different radical results favour them.

Group C, wherever Benin pb South Africa connected extremity quality and Nigeria and Rwanda are 3 points behind, is the 1 conception wherever a qualifier cannot look earlier the last round, starting connected Sunday.

Like Egypt, Algeria tin suffice if they unafraid maximum points against a overmuch little ranked opponent. The Desert Foxes person the added vantage of playing an ‘away’ Group G lucifer against Somalia astatine home.

Security concerns forestall Somalia staging matches successful Mogadishu, and a 163-place rankings spread down Algeria demonstrates the hard situation facing the Ocean Stars successful Oran connected Thursday.

Algeria manager Vladimir Petkovic has called up for the archetypal clip Luca Zidane, a 27-year-old goalkeeper with Spanish second-tier nine Granada and lad of French large Zinedine Zidane.

Luca, who qualifies for Algeria due to the fact that his paternal grandparents were calved there, has switched planetary allegiance aft representing France astatine younker levels.

Algeria are seeking a 5th quality astatine the planetary showpiece, portion Cape Verde are hoping to suffice for the archetypal time. They look Libya successful Tripoli connected Wednesday.

A erstwhile Portuguese colony, Cape Verde is simply a radical of islands disconnected the westbound seashore with astir 550,000 inhabitants. Qualification would marque them the African state with the smallest colonisation to bash so.

Even if the Cape Verdeans neglect successful Libya, they volition get a 2nd accidental connected Monday to cod 3 points needed to decorativeness supra Cameroon erstwhile they big bottommost squad Eswatini successful Group D.

Ghana volition triumph Group I connected Wednesday if they bushed the Central African Republic and Madagascar bash not cod maximum points against the Comoros.

Senegal tin suffice from Gr...