Mohamed Salah vs Sadio Mane: Egyptian King's ex-Liverpool team-mate once again standing between him and the realisation of his AFCON dream

Playing either side of Robert Firmino in Liverpool's three-pronged attack, Salah and Mane formed one of the most effective and successful forward lines in football history. Together, they fired the Reds to a seventh European Cup before ending England's most infamous title drought.

As Firmino subsequently revealed, though, Salah and Mane "were never best friends". "Each kept himself to himself," the Brazilian wrote in his autobiography. "It was rare to see the two of them talking."

However, the pair infamously exchanged words in front of the watching football world during the closing stages of a 3-0 win at Burnley during the 2019-20 season. Mane was so incensed with Salah's perceived selfishness, in fact, that the Senegalese was still ranting and raving after Jurgen Klopp wisely withdrew him from the action moments later.

For most onlookers, it was a shocking show of frustration, but Firmino wasn't the least bit surprised. "It had been brewing since the previous season, 2018-19," the striker revealed. "I knew those guys very well, maybe better than anyone.

"It was me out there on the field, right in the middle of them. I saw first-hand the looks, the grimaces, the body language, the dissatisfaction when one was mad at the other. I could feel it. I was the link between them in our attacking play and the firefighter in those moments... My instinct and my duty was to defuse the situation between them. Pour water on the fire - never petrol."

Despite their obvious differences, Salah and Mane maintained a productive working relationship at Anfield. "They never severed ties," Firmino said. "They always acted with the utmost professionalism."

He could never work out why Salah and Mane never quite clicked off the field, though, and openly wondered in his book if the tension between the two might have had something to do with "the Egypt-Senegal rivalry in African competitions".

It would be surprising if that were the cause of the coldness, though, given Salah and Mane only met twice in the international arena, in Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in 2014, before they became team-mates at Anfield three years later. However, it has been claimed that three titanic tussles in the space of eight weeks in the spring of 2022 contributed to Mane leaving Liverpool that summer.

Again, though, while Mane was overjoyed at converting the decisive penalty in both of Senegal's shootout wins over Egypt, in the Africa Cup of Nations final and subsequent World Cup qualification play-off, he by no means revelled in Salah's misery. On the contrary, Mane was quick to console his fellow forward after slotting home his spot-kick in the AFCON decider in Cameroon.

It was a touching gesture that appeared to support Salah's claim that while he and Mane had never been "very close", they "always respected each other".

Mane, for his part, always insisted that too much was made of his rivalry with Salah, echoing the Egyptian's claim that it never negatively affected Liverpool, and even argued that such an intense level of competition can actually be a good thing for a team.

"I'm someone who is quiet, but I'm friendly with everybody," Mane said on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast. "I think Mo is also a very nice guy. I think though, on the pitch, you saw – sometimes he would pass to me, sometimes he wouldn’t pass to me; sometimes he would pass to me, sometimes he wouldn’t pass to me. Only Bobby (Firmino) was there to share the ball.

"And I still remember [the game against Burnley] when I was really, really angry because he didn’t pass to me when he should have. I was really angry after the game. The next day he came up to me. He wanted to talk to me, but he didn't know how to say it. He still thought I was angry at him because we hadn't seen each other [the night before], we just went home.

"He said, 'Can we talk?' I said, 'OK, no problem, we go'. And he said, 'You think I didn’t want to pass to you? I didn't score. Bobby scored. But even when I got the ball, I didn’t see you. I just got the ball and I wanted to shoot. But I have nothing against you. And honestly, if I can pass to you and if I see you, I will.' I said, 'No, don't worry. It passed, it passed. I was angry because I think you can pass to me more with your quality.'

"I think since that day we became even closer. And sometimes it happens. For me, it wasn't personal. He just wants to score, score, score. And then I said to him: 'Mo, I can help you a lot because I know you want to be a top scorer. I can help you because I don't have this problem. I'll help you more.'"

Salah obviously helped Mane too. "I invite everyone to note that the person who provided Mane with the most assists is me," the former Roma attacker once pointed out in an interview with L'Equipe. "And, at the end of the day, I know what I did. My conscience is clear."

Such a statement is typical of Salah, who is acutely aware of his own worth. No matter what happens when he returns to Merseyside, his status as a Liverpool legend is already secure. His statistics speak for themselves, and if they're ever ignored, he's not afraid to pipe up on their behalf. Salah knows full well, though, that his legacy at international legacy will likely be decided this week.

"It is important for me to see the Egyptians proud of what I did in the game," Salah said after the win over Ivory Coast. "Everyone wants to achieve something for his country, so I hope we succeed. I think there is no-one in Egypt who wants to win the Africa Cup of Nations more than me. I have achieved everything except this title."

He went agonisingly close twice before, of course, as Egypt didn't just lose in the final four years ago; The Pharaohs were also beaten by Cameroon in the 2017 tournament-decider. So, when Salah says he's been "withstanding" the weight of expectancy for "a while", he's putting it mildly. 

Mane has been in Salah's shoes. He understands perfectly well how big a burden it is to be tasked with carrying the hopes of an entire nation, admitting that he didn't feel respected in his native Senegal until winning the AFCON.

"Sometimes, I played bad because of this, and because of the pressure," he told former Manchester United defender Ferdinand. "I remember when we went to the 2021 African Cup, I never slept in the night more than five hours. And then, that time, I had the biggest problem because I was at Liverpool. And the people in Senegal were expecting, they were talking too much about, 'You only playing good in Liverpool, you play bad in Senegal.'

"I didn't have no respect, I can say. I won the Premier League, I won the Champions League, but nothing in Senegal. So all this on your shoulder, it's not easy. In national teams in Europe, it's OK. But Africa is different. They can burn your house for nothing. Because for them, they don't have big clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, they don't have this. They only have their national team.

"I think people in Europe love the national team, but they love clubs more. But Senegal is the opposite. That's why it's big pressure. So for me, I just had to win it."

Unfortunately for Salah, while Mane has felt free since 2021, he's no less determined to inspire Senegal a second AFCON title.

"Winning something with my country, this was the great, great, great achievement of my career," he explained. "So, having the chance to win it again, you can't imagine what it would mean to me, first of all, but also to my people."

Still, while Mane desperately wants to lift the trophy again, Salah really needs to, as even Egypt boss Hossam Hassan has admitted. "I have great confidence in him," the coach said. "I see his morale, and I feel as if he is playing with the Egypt national team for the first time."

Salah is certainly in good spirits for a man supposedly still on bad terms with his club manager, even making light of the fact that he is no longer a starter at Liverpool, and says that's because this is the "best camp" he's ever been involved in. "The players are close, we like each other, hang out together and laugh together," he said after the win over defending champions Ivory Coast.

There is no disguising the fact, though, that the odds are stacked against Salah going into his eagerly-awaited head-to-head with Mane in Tangier, as he is just one of three European-based players in the Egypt squad, whereas Senegal have 23.

With Salah on top form, anything is possible, given he is playing like a man on a mission in Morocco, having already racked up five direct goal involvements in the four games he's played so far, taking his overall tally to 16. Only one man has managed more during that time: Mane, of course, with 19.

The stage really couldn't be better set, then, for what feels like a fitting finale to one of the game's great rivalries. Salah versus Mane. Never the best of friends, but not the worst of enemies either. Just two fantastic footballers hell-bent on doing their people proud.