Real is always Salah’s obsession

Mohamed Salah stood in the tunnel, eyes closed, back to the wall, seemingly dreaming of the goals he could inflict for Real Madrid. But instead, what happened must have felt like “deja vu” (a hallucination, feeling that had happened in the past). Only this time his enemy is not Sergio Ramos. It was Thibaut Courtois.

There is a consolation that this time Salah failed because of the brilliance, not the trick of the opponent. Sergio Ramos injured Salah’s elbow in Kiev in 2018. And by 2022, the Belgian’s elbow – his last, most memorable save in the 83rd minute – was deflected. directing one of Salah’s equalizers out of goal.

Courtois’ saves were a testament to the excellence of both as Salah tried to send the game into extra time.

For Salah, it was an excruciating wait to try to make amends in the final against Madrid. Four years plus another 30 minutes due to UEFA incompetence delayed the match at the Stade de France.

At first, like his teammates, Salah was like an Olympic 100m sprinter listening to gunfire. Liverpool have battered the white-shirted players from the first whistle, with the task of proving themselves to be a different, more mature opponent than the previously subdued side.

Liverpool was better. They lost this final narrowly and unfortunately much more than in Ukraine. But Madrid have not lost their ability to live up to their reputation in the final reckoning. Liverpool joined Chelsea and Man City became the defeat of the team carrying the champion’s DNA.

As for Salah, perhaps his desire for revenge made him lose some of his composure. The fact is that the Egyptian star’s performance in 2022 is no longer as impressive as in the first half of the season. After the defeat with the national team in AFCON and the World Cup qualifiers, Salah seems to have lost his psychological balance. He returned to Liverpool with boredom and could not continue the terrible form as in the second half of 2021.

The ease of dribbling, confidence and poise left Salah forsaken. Ironically, he fell back at exactly the time when Liverpool needed it most.

In the final against Real, Salah kicked the full 90 minutes, had 6 shots on target (3 blocked), successfully completed 1/5 of the passes, had 64 touches, passed with 89% accuracy, 2 assists, won the dispute 3/11 times, lost the ball 17 times and was overtaken once.

It can be seen that the Egyptian star is full of effort. But it seems that the desire for revenge has clouded his reason so that he is no longer truly himself. And the wait of Salah as well as Liverpool to make the Madrid people know the pain of the Champions League final will continue.