At 0:00 Beijing time on January 12, the first round of the African Cup of Nations Group D was staged, with 7 champions Egypt playing against Nigeria. In the first half, Isinacho scored, in the second half Avoniyi hit the crossbar, and Egypt lost 0-1 and suffered a black opening goal. In this campaign, Salah performed poorly, and he was worth 100 million yuan and was in a slump.
Egypt appeared in the African Cup of Nations for the 25th time, after they had won the title seven times, both in terms of the number of titles and the number of entries, which was the first in history. Arguably, Egypt is the most successful team in the history of the Africa Cup of Nations. However, Egypt is currently only ranked 45th in the world, which is not yet a top team.
In the 30th minute, Nigeria developed a consensus on the left side and successfully started the cross, the Egyptian defender's header was not far away, Alibo inserted the broken ball and knocked on the trend, Isinacho half turned and shot straight into the dead corner, Egypt fell behind 0-1.
In the 48th minute, Nigeria continued its efforts, Chukueze sent a cross in front of the bottom line, Avoniyi's close-range header hit the goal, the Egyptian goalkeeper pounced, and the ball hit the crossbar and popped up. The Nigerian player signaled that the ball had crossed the goal line intact, but the referee did not react.
In the 80th minute, there was a controversy on the field, the Egyptian long pass was followed, Zizo fell to the ground in the box, but the referee refused to award a penalty. In the 84th minute, Egypt won a corner kick and Hegazi sent a hanging shot from the back post, but unfortunately crossed the crossbar slightly.
In the remaining matches, Egypt failed to complete the counterattack, and finally lost 0-1 to Nigeria, encountering the opening black of this African Cup of Nations. Egypt lost the African Cup of Nations group stage for the first time in 18 years, after they were unbeaten in 16 games, the last time dating back to 2004, when they lost 2-1 to Tunisia.
In this campaign, Salah, who is worth up to 100 million euros, sleepwalked all the time, and only completed one shot on goal in 94 minutes, without any threat. In addition, Salah conceded the ball 16 times and the rating agency SofaScore only gave him 6.1 points, what level is that? The answer is the bottom of the team. Whoscored was even more ruthless, giving only 5.9 points and not qualifying at all.
In liverpool, Salah called the storm, contributing 16 goals and 9 assists in 20 Premier League games, leading the top scorer list and making great strides towards the third Premier League Golden Boot.
But after returning to the national team, Salah was easily locked up, without the help of top teammates, he was in a lonely situation on the field, and his tactical power was greatly reduced.
Losing the first battle left Egypt in a passive position, and in the next round against Guinea-Bissau, the world's 106th, they had to fight to win. According to the rules of the African Cup of Nations, the top two of the 6 groups directly advanced, and the 4 groups with better results were 3rd, and they could also reach the round of 16.
Therefore, the situation facing Egypt is simple, as long as they win a group game, they are likely to advance to the knockout rounds.