Saudis overcome sulky Salah and evergreen Essam

SAUDI ARABIA 2 EGYPT 1

THIS was a most peculiar match, a dead rubber with plenty of live issues. We were given the wonderful sight of the World Cup’s oldest ever player — at 45 years and 161 days — making a penalty save to defy his years. We saw a referee exposing the lengthy delays that VAR can cause. And we got a palpable expression of Mohamed Salah’s mood towards his country’s FA. Salah is said to be furious with Egypt for allowing him to be politically associated with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and is considering quitting international football. The muted manner of his celebration after an opening goal was telling. For a few moments before kick-off, it seemed Salah would not even feature, when the Egyptian FA posted a line-up on Twitter without the Liverpool forward. Yet he appeared and his goal in the 22nd minute was a thing of beauty. With one deft touch Salah brought a lofted ball under control, and with a second he lobbed a finish over Yasser Almosailem. Then referee Wilmar Roldan spiced up matters. The Colombian official failed to see Harry Kane wrestled to the ground twice against Tunisia, but here he spotted a handball by Ahmed Fathi to give Essam Elhadary his moment. The Egypt keeper tipped Fahad Almuwallad’s penalty on to the bar. Roldan intervened again on the stroke of half-time. Almuwallad went down in the box after a slight tug on his shirt by Ali Gabr and Roldan pointed to the spot. Yet replays showed Almuwallad with a bigger grab of Gabr’s jersey and the video assistant referee asked Roldan to take another look. Roldan somehow stuck with his original decision and, after a four-minute delay, Salman Alfaraj netted the penalty before Salem Aldawsari’s volley won it for the Saudis at the death.