On the brink of the abyss, after losing his first match of the Africa Cup against Nigeria and when it seemed destined for a dangerous draw for their interests, Mohamed Salah appeared at just the right time to resurrect Egypt, who won 0-1 against Guinea-Bissau with a controversial goal disallowed Mama Balde at the end of the match.
Missing in action in his debut against Nigeria, Salah redeemed himself in a hard-fought game for the team led by Carlos Queiroz. His was the decisive goal in a match that could have gone wrong for Egypt at the end, when Baldé scored the equalizer at the buzzer and it was annulled by VAR to the disappointment of the modest African team.
In fact, Baldé was robbed of what could have been one of the best goals in the Africa Cup of Nations. With nine minutes remaining in the duel, he went all out from the left wing. He left Ayman Ashraf on the way and, from the top of the area, launched a right hand with an unappealable thread that goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy could not save.
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Then, the Burundian referee Pacifique Ndabihaweniman warned by the VAR, saw a very rigorous foul on Ashraf, who ended up on the ground when he was passed by Baldé just before his shot. Fortunately for Egypt, the referee decided in their favor and breathed easy with a victory that they needed to not have too many problems on the last day of the group stage.
And it is that, after losing against Nigeria, already qualified for the round of 16 after beating Sudan this Saturday (3-1), Egypt could not afford to suffer another puncture. For this reason, he jumped onto the pitch plugged in and in the first twenty minutes he was able to score, but the Guinean goal posts prevented Salah and Mostafa Mohamed from opening the scoring.
After their chances, Egypt got bogged down and could only hit the table late in the game when, now, Salah did not miss a volley that pierced the Guinea-Bissau goal. That was the only goal of the match. The other was cancelled. It was enough for Egypt, they can still be eliminated in the group stage. If they lose to Sudan and Guinea-Bissau beat Nigeria, they will be out.