World Cup 2018: 5 Flops of the group stage

#3 Mohamed Salah - Egypt

Mohamed Salah scored a penalty for Egypt.

With his stellar season cut short by an early substitution in the Champions League final, Mohamed Salah passed the tests of time to join his team for the group stage in Russia. Come match day, with the entire world waiting for the Egyptian to cast his charms, Salah was benched for the opening game against Uruguay. Egypt lost the match to a late header by the Uruguayans and learnt their lesson the hard way.

With their lessons learned and realizing the importance of their talisman, Egypt faced Russia in their second game of the group stage. To everybody's surprise, Russia thrashed Egypt 3-1 and utterly dominated the game.

Salah was kept quiet by the hosts for the entire game and the penalty that Salah scored was the only consolation. The last game saw a similar outcome for Egypt, who lost despite Salah getting the opener for his country.

In a group where Egypt could have easily qualified second if not first, unsound tactics and lack of big stage experience cost the African nation a spot in the last 16.

Leaving Salah out of the first game proved decisive as they lost a well-contested game at the very end and while the Liverpool man did his very best in the other two fixtures, he sadly couldn't motivate his team like Cristiano Ronaldo, who he might go head to head in the near future for personal accolades.