Fit-again Salah fails to deny Russians

Hosts on brink of knockout stages after impressing again in victory over Egypt

Hosts Russia all but guaranteed their place in the last 16 of the World Cup, shrugging aside the goal scoring return of Mohamed sal ah to sweep aside egypt 3-1 in St Petersburg last night.

Derided by many as one of the worst World Cup home sides in living memory, Stanislav Cherchesov’s side doubled down on their 5-0 thrashing of Saudi Arabia with another narrative-busting display that will take them to the knockout phase barring a highly unlikely sequence of results.

Ahmed Fathi provided the helping hand, bundling home Roman Zobnin’s scuffed shot early in the second half and taking the Africans to the brink of a disappointing exit, but Russia’s victory was assured by smart strikes from Denis Cheryshev and Artem Dzyuba.

Roared on by their countrymen, who have been braced for calamity at the competition but now sense something grander, they survived a Var-assisted penalty from sal ah on his come back from a dislocated shoulder.

The Liverpool forward’s appearance in the Egypt XI, his first outing since walking out of the Champions League final with tears in his eyes, immediately raised the stakes.

As well as providing a reward for the forward’s diligent rehabilitation, it offered the fixture some much-needed star power and helped divide the attention of an otherwise partisan 60,000 crowd.

While Russia’s every foray upfield was roared on with gusto, the mercury rose every time the Premier League’s topscorer sniffed the ball.

Having fed ons craps against the run of play he had a couple of half-chances late in the first half, one snuffed out by the alert Zhirkov at the far post and the other whipped wide from the edge of the box.

At other times he enjoyed even less success, reduced to waiting expectantly under long balls from back or forced discourteously to the turf as he attempted to spin his marker.

The decibel levels when Salah moved into the final third spoke of his status but at time she gave the impression of a mo vie star deprived of a script.

Russia, meanwhile, turned in a competent first 45 minutes. Sergei Ignashevich should have done better with a close-range header and Aleksandr Golovin flashed a low shot wide but 0-0 was a fair account.

Early in the second half a neat move down the right wing brought romanzobn in into shooting range and though his shot skipped seemingly harmlessly into the box, Fathi somehow contrived to stagger into it and nudge it past his own keeper.

Almost an hour had passed when Cheryshev doubled the lead before Dzyuba made it 3-0 shortly after.

There was still time for Salah, and the video officials, to stamp their mark on the night. An initial free-kick was upgraded to a penalty on review and he clinically smashed home the spot kick.