"We are going to be rivals" - Mohamed Salah makes interesting claim on Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane ahead of AFCON final

Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah will be up against his club team-mate and close friend Sadio Mane tonight. Egypt and Senegal lock horns with each other for continental success.

The Africa Cup of Nations final will see Salah line up against Mane on Sunday night and one of them will have to go through heartbreak. Salah has conceded he and Mane are "going to be rivals" during the game.

"It's great to play against Senegal as a team and also against Sadio," Salah told reporters at a pre-match press conference as quoted by The Liverpool Echo. "We are going to be rivals and after the game we will be team-mates again."

"We had a small chat after the Morocco game, we saw each other and I was checking how his head was. I said hopefully we would meet in the final and have a good game."

Salah and Mane have been teammates at Liverpool since 2017 and have been crucial to everything Jurgen Klopp's side have achieved over the last few years.

The two are close friends but visibly had a moment of 'rift' between themselves in 2019 against Burnley. It happened when Salah did not pass the ball to Mane despite the Senegalese being in a better position to score.

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The Liverpool duo will be desperate for continental glory

Egypt have been the most successful team in the history of AFCON with seven titles to their name while Senegal are yet to conquer Africa.

The Lions of Teranga came close to winning the coveted trophy on two occasions but lost in the final both times. In 2002, they lost against Cameroon on penalties with the game finishing 0-0 while Mane saw his heart broken by Algeria in 2019 as they lost 1-0.

Senegal were regarded as one of the favorites for AFCON glory this time out even before a ball had been kicked. Aliou Cissé's boys have certainly lived up to expectation.

Napoli star defender Kalidou Koulibaly has led his team to victories against Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea and Burkina Faso in the knockout stages.

Egypt, on the other hand, have defied all the odds to make it all the way to the final having got the better of Ivory Coast, Morocco and Cameroon in the process.

If Salah can lead Egypt to their eighth AFCON title, his case for winning the Ballon d'Or next year would get significantly stronger.

Liverpool fans will be happy that two of their best players will return to join the rest of their squad next week. But they will have a hard time choosing which country to root for tonight.