Salah! What a goal!

Day -505 WorldCup2018

The last group matches at Afcon were played today. Egypt beat Ghana 1-0 and Mali and Uganda, yes, drew 1-1. Egypt and Ghana move on. Egypt play Morocco in the quarterfinals and Ghana play DR Congo.

Egypt v Morocco. That has the feeling of a classic, a titanic struggle between two teams trying to steal the thunder from their recently more illustrious fellow North African team, Algeria. Or it could turn out to be really boring.

With Egypt moving on the dream is still alive for their third choice, 44 year old goalkeeper, Essam El Hadary, to win his fifth Afcon, the first coming in 1998.

Today's the kind of day that I needed to hear an excited commentator, getting excited about a pretty exciting goal. It was quite the special one from Mohamed Salah, formerly of Chelsea, now at Roma. The goal celebration was fun to watch too, in that it had three elements of a celebration of which a player normally chooses one. Salah went for all three.

First he did the "I've just scored an amazing goal but I'm too cool to acknowledge it." When that was done he quickly jogged off to find some empty grass for a David Luiz-inspired group prayer and thank you to God for bestowing the skill on him to score that goal. He finished off with the long run to the bench for the......wait for it....here it comes....he's still running and smiling....he'll be there soon for the big, tight embrace with his coach, to thank him for having faith in him and allowing him to demonstrate the skills that God gave him to score that goal....there might even be a little kiss...maybe a few words as he grabs the back of his coach's neck and holds him close....here it comes....Oh hold on, who's this guy? He looks like one of the substitutes coming off the bench to meet Salah. He's going to give him the kiss and embrace and the loving words. No. It's more like a "what should I do now moment" for the reserve player. Oh, I'll sort of pick him up/hug him and send him on his way. And off trotted Salah, not sure whether it was even worth part 3 of the celebration.

The quarterfinals are on Saturday and Sunday. They might be coming to a TV near you. Not near me. But I'm sure if you really wanted to, you can find somewhere to watch them. The most competitive continental championship, I say again.