Nigerian Brilliance, Salah’s Penalty Blues: AFCON 2025 Bronze Clash Rewritten
17 January 2026
Match outcome and penalties
Egypt's captain Mohamed Salah extended his personal drought as the Pharaohs failed to salvage pride in AFCON 2025's bronze clash with Nigeria, after a goalless 90 minutes that moved to penalties.
Nigeria edged Egypt 4-2 in the shootout, with Salah and Omar Marmoush missing their spot-kicks, while Ramy Rabia and Mahmoud Saber found the net for Egypt.
Salah's ongoing AFCON drought
This moment marks Salah's fifth penalty miss in an Egypt shirt during shootouts. The streak began with two misses in the 6-0 AFCON qualifying win over Niger in 2019.
Earlier, in a January 2024 friendly against Tanzania, his effort hit the crossbar, went wide, then bounced off the goalkeeper into his own net; a quirky own-goal report counted it in some summaries. In the 2022 World Cup qualifier against Senegal he also failed to convert a penalty.
What happened in the shootout
In the decisive moment, Egypt's Rabia and Saber converted, but Salah and Marmoush missed, handing Nigeria bronze.
Punchline 1: If penalties counted as goals, Salah would be chasing the Golden Boot of a parallel universe.
Punchline 2: The net now knows Salah's flavor of suspense—great through the run of play, less reliable at the flip of a coin.
