Salah likely to play against Russia
YEKATERINBURG — Egypt coach Hector Cuper couldn’t say for certain whether Mohamed Salah’s absence was the thing cost his team during their 1-0 loss to Uruguay at the World Cup.
But he also wasn’t sure that his star striker couldn’t have helped the Pharaohs pull off an upset in their Group A opener.
“Mo Salah is an important player for us, that is without a doubt,” Cuper said after Friday’s match. “Perhaps if Mo had been on the pitch today the outcome could have been different, but we’ll never know that.”
The odds of Salah sitting out back-to-back World Cup games with his injured left shoulder are even slimmer.
On Thursday, Cuper was optimistic that Salah would play in the opener. But he said the decision was made to be cautious on Friday. Though he quickly added he thinks Salah will be ready for Tuesday’s crucial match against Russia in St. Petersburg. The decision is always taken by myself and the staff, especially in a case like Mo Salah’s case,” Cuper said. “Yesterday we were quite certain during that training session he would play. After the session there was question whether if he fell if he could get another injury.
“So we decided not to take that risk because we want to be sure we have him in top form in our match against Russia and Saudi Arabia.”
Empty seats in Egypt-Uruguay game
More than 5,000 people with tickets skipped Uruguay’s 1-0 win over Egypt in Yekaterinburg on Friday, the worst-attended World Cup game in eight years.
Fifa said it is investigating why, with “noshows” one of the factors. Pockets of orange seats were clearly visible in the lower tiers of the Yekaterinburg Arena, which has a 33,061 capacity for World Cup games. The temporary stands behind the goals for Russian fans appeared to be fuller. Fifa said it allocated 32,278 tickets and the official attendance was 27,015 for the 5 p.m. kickoff.
“There were some bald spots and it wasn’t very pleasant,” regional sports minister Leonid Rapoport told Russia’s RIA Novosti state news agency.
“We thought Salah would play.”