KUYT: MO & SADIO WILL STAY PALS
HAVING faced two of his Liverpool team-mates in a World Cup final, few men are better placed than Dirk Kuyt to know how Sadio Mane and Mo Salah are feeling right now.
The Reds pair are now back on Merseyside after contesting the Africa Cup of Nations decider – a game that saw Mane’s Senegal clinch the crown via a penalty shootout.
But it is the situation Egypt captain Salah (below) finds himself in that is most familiar to Kuyt, who was once part of a Holland team that lost the biggest game of all to a Spain side featuring Reds colleagues Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina in their squad.
He said: “It’s always a bit strange. You’re used to training every day week in, week out with each other, you’re playing games with each other and then, suddenly, there comes a big tournament for your country and you are each other’s opponents.
“I remember I was trying to make my run from outside to inside and during the match I saw Pepe Reina running down behind the linesman, yelling at the Spanish defenders that they need to watch me and need to be careful of my runs.
“That’s what you saw with Salah and Mane – Salah was trying everything to win that cup and you could see it with the penalty Mane had to take that the goalkeeper saved!”
However, Kuyt remembers that the hostilities of a hard-fought contest in Johannesburg quickly dissipated.
He continued: “I lost a World Cup final and it’s one of the saddest moments of my career but, after the match, the team-mates from club sides came into the dressing rooms.
“Once you enter that white line and you’re inside the pitch, it’s like a war, but once the whistle goes and the game is over it’s finished.”
And the Dutchman does not expect there to be any ongoing animosity between Mane and Salah.
He said: “They are not only top, top football players, they are winners and they want to win as many trophies as they can possibly get.
“But they know they need each other to make it possible so I’ve no worries there will be any problems between them.”