Juan Antonio Pizzi is happy Mohamed Salah will be in Russia even though the Egyptian ace could dump Saudi Arabia out of the World Cup.
A lot of the pre-tournament focus has been on Salah’s shoulder — the hopes of a nation resting on the healing powers of the Liverpool star who injured it during his side’s Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid.
While it is still not known when he will be able to play, Salah did make the Egypt squad and all the noises coming out of the camp are that he will be able to get back on the pitch sooner rather than later. That means he is more than likely to line-up against Saudi Arabia in the last game in Group A, a match that could prove pivotal to both sides’ hopes of making the knockout stages.
“We are happy that Mohamed Salah is in the Egyptian squad of 23 and will be playing in the World Cup,” Green Falcons boss Pizzi said.
“We appreciate the efforts that Salah has done to be here. We know that (he) has played well for six months with Liverpool. He (has been) a great player with them and scored many beautiful goals.”
All the focus on Salah and his shoulder has removed attention away from the other 22 players, which, considering the side is without a win this year and lost 3-0 to Belgium on Wednesday, is no bad thing. But Pizzi is all too aware that a belief that Egypt without Salah, or with a misfiring Salah, are easy fodder would be wrong.
“We respect the all Egyptian National team and not just Mohamed Salah,” he said.
Before they face Egypt, however, Saudi Arabia come up against Russia on Thursday and Uruguay six days’ later — the outcomes of which will determine whether the Green Falcons go into the Egypt clash with everything still to play for.
The World Cup opener against the hosts will be Pizzi’s first competitive match as Saudi Arabia coach; the eyes of the globe will be watching but Pizzi is remaining calm.
“Sure, we have faith in our players and in the way they were prepared. It is my first World Cup opener as a coach for a national team. We have prepared the players in the best possible way and we gave them all they needed to be at the highest levels. We will wait and see how things will go in the first game.
“Of course we will play the first match and that is exceptional and everybody will be excited. We have high hopes regarding this game. All the media, people and fans are waiting for this game.”
Saudi Arabia coach Juan Antonio Pizzi welcomes participation of Mohamed Salah
Saudi Arabia coach Juan Antonio Pizzi welcomes participation of Mohamed Salah
- Green Falcons set to meet Egypt on June 25
- Salah is expected to recover from shoulder injury by then
Morocco banish any doubts about ability to host World Cup 2030
- Impressive stadiums, easy transportation links and a well-established tourism infrastructure ensured the 24-team tournament went off without any major hitch and will assuage any doubters about the World Cup in four years’ time
RABAT: Morocco’s successful staging of the Africa Cup of Nations means there should be no skepticism about its ability to co-host the World Cup with Portugal and Spain in 2030, even if Sunday’s final was clouded by a walk-off and defeat for the home team.
Impressive stadiums, easy transportation links and a well-established tourism infrastructure ensured the
24-team tournament went off without any major hitch and will assuage any doubters about the World Cup in four years’ time.
Morocco plans to use six venues in 2030 and five of them were used for the Cup of Nations, providing world-class playing surfaces and a spectacular backdrop.
The Grande Stade in Tangier with a 75,000 capacity is an impressive facility in the northern coastal city, less than an hour’s ferry ride from Spain.
Meanwhile, FIFA President Gianni Infantino condemned "some Senegal players" for the "unacceptable scenes" which overshadowed their victory in the final when they left the pitch in protest at a penalty awarded to Morocco.
African football's showpiece event was marred by most of the Senegal team walking off when, deep into injury time of normal play and with the match locked at 0-0, Morocco were awarded a spot-kick following a VAR check by referee Jean-Jacques Ndala for a challenge on Brahim Diaz.
security personnel at the other end of the stadium, Senegal's players eventually returned to the pitch to see Diaz shoot a soft penalty into the arms of their goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
The match was played at the Stade Moulay Abdellah in the capital Rabat, which has a capacity of 69,500. The attendance for the final was 66,526.
Stadiums in Agadir, Fes and Marrakech were also more than adequate and will now be renovated over the next few years.
But the crowning glory is the proposed 115,000-capacity Stade Hassan II on the outskirts of Casablanca which Morocco hope will be chosen to host the final over Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
In all, Morocco will spend $1.4 billion on the six stadiums. Also planned is extensive investment in airports, with some 10 Moroccan cities already running direct air links to Europe and many budget airlines offering flights to the country.
An extension of Africa’s only high-speed rail service, which already provides a comfortable three-hour ride from Tangier to Casablanca, further south to Agadir and Marrakech is also planned. Morocco hopes all of this will modernize its cities and boost the economy.
On the field, Morocco will hope to launch a credible challenge for a first African World Cup success, although on Sunday they continued their poor return in the Cup of Nations, where their only triumph came 50 years ago.
They surprised with a thrilling run to the last four at the Qatar 2022 World Cup as the first African nation to get that far and will hope for a similar impact at this year’s finals in North America. They are in Group C with Brazil, Scotland and Haiti.
