ARLINGTON: A nerveless Mohamed Salah said he decided only at the last moment to chip in his penalty under massive pressure to help Egypt into the World Cup last 16 on Friday.

The former Liverpool superstar and Egypt captain stepped up third in the shootout for his country and scored a “Panenka” as they beat Australia 4-2 on penalties after the game ended 1-1 in Texas.

Egypt, who won a World Cup knockout game for the first time, face Lionel Messi’s Argentina next.

The 34-year-old Salah was clearly hampered by a hamstring strain, but played the whole 120 minutes and stepped up for his country when they needed him.

“If somebody was going to do it, it would be me. I am more experienced than others and I wanted to give them confidence,” said Salah, who had looked emotional afterwards. “I decided last minute, I had to do it.”

Salah proclaimed “history” for Egypt and told his team-mates to enjoy it, after the great underachievers of African football finally made their mark on the biggest stage.

Salah could well be at his last World Cup, and said: “I always try to enjoy every moment because it does not come back. So I always tell the boys, ‘just enjoy the moment’, and probably we’ll see tonight in a few minutes how we’re going to celebrate outside the bus now.

“But we can’t take it for granted because Egypt — I don’t know how many times I’ve said the word — but it’s never before we qualified in a group stage and never qualified for the next round, so it’s just a moment to enjoy.”

Aside from his penalty in the shootout, Salah has one goal and two assists so far at the tournament in North America and averages a goal every other game for his country. For all their dominance of African football, Egypt’s World Cup history has been underwhelming, so Friday’s success over Australia will count among their finest hours.

Egypt had the better of the chances but were unable to beat Australia after two hours of football.

It was their first success in a World Cup knockout game, which compares starkly with their record seven African Cup of Nations titles and distinguished role as pioneers of African football.

At the AT&T Stadium, Australia coach Tony Popovic rolled the dice by bringing on veteran goalkeeper Maty Ryan for the shoot-out just moments before the final whistle. But Ryan was unable to bring his influence to bear, failing to get a hand on any of Egypt’s successful four penalties. Australia were left ruing penalty misses from captain Harry Souttar and 18-year-old defender Lucas Herrington, who both blazed over.

Popovic defended the decision to bring on Ryan for the shoot-out.

“We just felt that Maty’s experience will be the difference,” Popovic said of Ryan before defending the selection of the teenager Herrington to take a pressure-laden penalty. “I’m sure you’d be saying something else if the young kid scored,” Popovic said. “You’d probably be sitting there saying how wonderful it is that an 18-year-old took a penalty and scored.”

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2026