No mercy for old teammate: Salah abandons all hope when he enters Mane's hell

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here", says the inscription above the gates of Hell in Dante Alighieri's Inferno, one of the three parts of his renowned 14th century narrative poem The Divine Comedy.

The quote mentioned above suggests that those who pass through the gates enter a place of eternal despair and damnation, with no possibility of a better future or rescue.

That's probably what Mohamed Salah goes through each time his Egypt faces Senegal, or, more accurately, he faces his former Liverpool teammate, Sadio Mane.

AFCON 2025: Mane fires Senegal to final as Salah's Egypt bow out

At the club level, the two have never met, but in international terms, they have a history, which the Pharaohs' superstar would definitely want to erase from his career and memory.

Since Salah and Mane's spells with Egypt and Senegal began, the duo has met six times and the North African country triumphed only once, in the first leg of the 2022 FIFA World Cup African qualifiers' playoffs, and even that victory was Pyrrhic, as the Lions of Teranga bounced back in the return leg and qualified for the WC after the penalty shoot-out, with Salah missing the first shot for Egypt and Mane sending home the winning spot-kick.

Eight years earlier, the two players locked horns in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. Senegal won both games - 2-0 and 1-0 - and Sadio netted one of the goals.

Just 51 days before the aforementioned painful defeat in the penalty roulette, Salah and Mane led their teams in the 2021 AFCON grand final. The clash ended in a goalless draw, as the Senegalese wasted a spot-kick seven minutes into the game.

Once again, the penalties were to decide the winner. Once again, Mane bagged the final goal in the last series, while Salah didn't even get a chance to shoot.

Last night, Egypt didn't even force the shoot-out. Everything was over in 90 minutes. And again, Mo entered Sadio's "hell" and abandoned all hope at its gates. The Senegalese netted the 78th-minute winner, and the Egyptian didn't make a single shot on goal.

Luckily for Salah, his Inferno will be over soon, as Mane announced this would be his last AFCON. And one cannot help but wonder how Mo will remember his old Liverpool teammate - as the man with whom he won six major trophies at Anfield and combined for 263 goals, or as the man who owned him every time they met.

AFCON 2025 - 1/2 FINALS

Wednesday

Senegal - Egypt 1-0 (0-0)

/Mane 78/

Nigeria - Morocco 0-0 (2-4 after penalties)