Mohamed Salah is at peak of his powers as Egypt eye Africa Cup of Nations glory

Captain and talisman has been at heart of Pharaohs march to semi-finals where they will face hosts Cameroon

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  Egypt's Mohamed Salah celebrates after the match at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Cameroon. Reuters

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  Trezeguet celebrates scoring Egypt's second goal in their 2-1 Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final win over Morocco on Sunday, January 30, 2022. Reuters

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  Egypt's Trezeguet commiserates Morocco forward Tarik Tissoudali after the match. AFP

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  Trezeguet scores Egypt's second goal. AP

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  Egypt's Trezeguet celebrates with Mohamed Salah after the second goal. AFP

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  Mohamed Salah sets up Egypt's second goal. AFP

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  Mohamed Salah scores for Egypt. AFP

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  Egypt attacker Mohamed Salah, second right, celebrates after scoring. EPA

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  Egypt's Ayman Ashraf takes down Achraf Hakimi of Morocco to give away a penalty. EPA

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  Referee Maguette Ndiaye checks VAR for the early penalty decision. EPA

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  Mohamed Salah and his Egypt teammates argue with referee Maguette Ndiaye. Reuters

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  Sofiane Boufal scores from the spot to give Morocco the lead. EPA

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  Morocco's Sofiane Boufal, left, celebrates after scoring. AFP

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  Egypt's Mohamed Salah holds off the challenge of Adam Masina of Morocco. AP

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  Morocco's forward Sofiane Boufal celebrates after scoring from the spot. AFP

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  Egypt's defender Ahmed Hegazi wins the ball. AFP

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  Egypt captain Mohamed Salah on the attack against Morocco. EPA

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  Tempers fray during the match. AFP

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  Egypt's Mostafa Mohamed and defender Achraf Hakimi of Morocco go head-to-head. AFP

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  Egypt goalkeeper Mohamed Abogabal had to be substituted in extra-time due to injury. AFP

Mohamed Salah, Egypt’s captain and lodestar, was thought to be suffering an international goal-drought coming into the Africa Cup of Nations. These things are relative, but as he has been in such eclectic form for his club Liverpool, then, yes, no goals in five Egypt fixtures did count as an unusually barren spell.

The Pharaohs have teetered a few times during an Afcon which, as Salah on Sunday reminded compatriots, is “tough for everyone,” listing its fallen heavyweights. “Nigeria, the best team in the group stage, are out,” he pointed out. “Algeria, who won it last time, lost in the group stage.”

He might have added Morocco, who were leading their quarter-final until well into the second-half of a short-tempered North African derby. At that point Egypt teetered, and, as at almost every crossroads at this Afcon, Salah steered them back from the brink.

For all that he arrived in Cameroon on the back of five goalless matches for his country, Salah senses he has never been at an international tournament feeling closer to the peak of his powers.

When he returns to Liverpool next week, either with a bronze, silver, gold or no medal from Afcon 2021, he will be in the same place in the list of Premier League goalscorers for the season as when he left almost a month ago: At the top, with 16 from 20 matches.

There have been seven Salah goals in the Champions League, too, at a rate of almost one every hour. And here’s the statistic that marries so well with all those club goals: only one player in England’s top division — Salah’s colleague Trent Alexander-Arnold — has provided more passes that led to so far this season as Salah, with his nine assists.

Egypt have nobody quite so tuned to Salah’s wavelength as Alexander-Arnold, but in international football, with its limited, uneven timetable, it is next to impossible to cultivate the same patterns and relationships as between club teammates. Nor, over the last three weeks, have the playing surfaces at some of the stadiums in Cameroon allowed Egypt to develop slick passing routines, to trust their through-balls.

The effect for a team naturally geared towards releasing their best and quickest striker to run behind opposition defences, has been vexing at times. “It was hard for us at the start, up until we could adapt,” said Salah.

The captain pointed the way, proving an exceptional problem-solver besides his other skills. He has tirelessly chased space, foraged in deep positions to act as auxiliary midfielder. There has been a good deal of frustrating trial-and-error around his delivery from free-kicks and corners.

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  Mohamed Salah celebrates after scoring Egypt's penalty shootout winner against Ivory Coast in the Africa Cup of Nations last-16 match at the Japoma Stadium in Douala on Wendesday, January 26, 2022. AFP

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  Mohamed Salah of Egypt celebrates after the match. EPA

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  Egypt's Mohamed Salah scores the winning penalty. Reuters

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  Egypt goalkeeper Mohamed Abou Gabal made a crucial save during the penalty shootout. Reuters

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  Egypt players during the penalty shootout. Reuters

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  Ivory Coast players during the penalty shootout. Reuters

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  Egypt's Mohamed Salah during the game against Ivory Coast. Reuters

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  Ivory Coast's Wilfried Zaha on the attack against Egypt. AP

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  Egypt's Mahmoud Hassan Trezeguet shoots at goal. Reuters

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  Ivory Coast's Eric Bailley attempts to block a Mohamed Salah pass. Reuters

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  Egypt manager Carlos Queiroz. AFP

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  Egypt captain Mohamed Salah under pressure from Ivory Coast's Ghislain Konan. AP

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  Ivory Coast's midfielder Ibrahim Sangare goes for the acrobatic. AFP

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  Ivory Coast defender Eric Bailly heads the ball under pressure from Mohamed Salah. AFP

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  Egypt goalkeeper Mohamed Abogabal attempts to catch the ball. AFP

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  Ivory Coast's Max Gradel controls ball. EPA

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  Mohamed Salah of Egypt runs with the ball. EPA

Beaten 1-0 by Nigeria, Egypt were being held by Guinea-Bissau deep into the second half of their second group match when Salah first reset his country’s course, drifting away from his marker to meet a cross and stab an angled volley underneath the goalkeeper. The relief was palpable.

Through the next four hours of tournament action, Egypt scored only once. The last-16 tie against Ivory Coast went to penalties, amid a crisis: Egypt’s admired goalkeeper, Mohamed El Shenawy withdrew injured. His deputy, Gabaski, would be the instant hero, saving the Ivorian Eric Bailly’s spot-kick. But the pressure moment fell on Salah, required to convert Egypt’s fifth penalty to put them through.

That felt like a watershed. At the last Afcon, Egypt, the hosts, were eliminated at the last-16 phase, a tired Salah tightly marked by a dogged South Africa, who became unlikely spoilsports of a campaign around which a decade’s worth of Egyptian hope had been invested.

Salah has spent much of his adult life as designated figurehead of a fervently-sought renaissance in Egyptian football. Between 2006 and 2010, the Pharaohs won successive Afcons. After 2012, amid great social upheaval and violence at stadiums, the domestic league was suspended for the best part of two years. The national team failed to even reach the next three Afcons.

They needed a superstar: Salah’s goals fired them to the 2017 tournament, and all the way to a losing final against Cameroon, with whom they will contest Thursday’s semi-final. Salah then steered Egypt to their first World Cup for 28 years, but went to Russia in 2018 gingerly nursing a damaged shoulder, from a foul on him in Liverpool’s Champions League final a few weeks earlier. The injury diminished him, and the team.

That’s three major tournaments, and in different ways, three crushing disappointments. Hence the vivid impression that, in Cameroon, at his third Afcon, Salah is utterly tigerish, full of stamina and on a mission.

Against Morocco, 1-0 down, he swung the tie by with a poacher’s goal followers of Liverpool would instinctively recognise. The more creative Salah then put Egypt into the semi-final, brilliantly setting up the extra-time winner and looking again like the footballer who, on his day, is as hard to stop as any in the world.

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  Egypt forward Mohamed Salah and midfielder Ramadan Sobhi at a training session at Japoma Stadium in Douala, Cameroon, on January 25, 2022 on the eve of their Africa Cup of Nations last-16 match against Ivory Coast. AFP

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  Egypt forward Mohamed Salah shares a laugh in training. AFP

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  Egypt's Mohamed Salah and teammates attend a training session. AFP

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  Egypt forward Mohamed Salah. AFP

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  Egypt's Mohamed Salah controls the ball. AFP

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  Egypt's Mohamed Salah controls the ball. AFP

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  Mohamed Salah passes the ball. AFP

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  Egypt's Mohamed Salah attends a press conference at the Japoma Stadium in Douala. AFP

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  Egypt coach Carlos Queiroz and Mohamed Salah arrive at a press conference. AFP

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  Egypt forward Mohamed Salah arrives at a press conference at the Japoma Stadium. AFP

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  Egypt's Mohamed Salah addresses the media at a press conference. AFP

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  Egypt forward Mohamed Salah. AFP