Sadio Mane says he hasn’t discussed the Africa Cup of Nations final result with Mohamed Salah but they have shared a joke about the mind games that took place during his penalty kick.
The Liverpool players are both training with each other once again on Merseyside after their AFCON final meeting when Mane’s Senegal defeated Salah’s Egypt in a penalty shoot-out.
But it seems Mane, who scored the winning penalty, has been respectful over the result as he can tell his team-mate is still hurting.
‘Me and Mo Salah don’t even talk about it,’ Mane told the Que Golazo YouTube channel when asked about next month’s World Cup qualifier between the two countries.
‘I think that I’m still thinking about my African Cup, but it’s also an important game that means a lot to me and my people.
‘If we can qualify – and we will do everything to do it – it’s very important for me, my team-mates and my country because it’s a really, really massive competition, which is a dream for any football player.
‘We will be well prepared for it and do everything possible to win because it’s really important.
‘Until now – you won’t believe me – but we haven’t talked about it, because I know he’s still disappointed for sure.’
However, Mane and Salah have seen the funny side over the former’s missed penalty-kick in normal time, with the Egyptian star trying to put off his Reds team-mate.
Before taking the kick, Salah could be seen having words with goalkeeper Gabaski in order to tell him where he’d go and Mane was having none of it, telling the keeper to go back to his line.
‘We have mentioned when I missed the penalty,’ Mane added.
‘He [Salah] said: “why did you come to see the goalkeeper?” and I said “no because you’ve been talking to him and I’m sure you will play mind-games, so I will play mind-games as well.”
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‘I saw him talking and I’m sure he was not saying anything much so it was fine to just say it was mind-games and I want to be more fun than them, so I go “Mo, I will put it in the right side, tell him I will put it in the right side.”
‘We were talking about this yesterday and laughing about it, it was quite funny.’
