Gini Wijnaldum has posted on Twitter that he has ‘always believed’ in Sadio Mane at scoring penalties, despite his previous comments about the Liverpool player.
Prior to Mane winning the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal on Sunday, Wijnaldum shared that he told his former Liverpool teammate, before the game, ‘don’t take penalties’.
Well, low and behold, the 29-year-old ended up creating history when his spot-kick in the shootout helped his country lift their first-ever AFCON title and this is how Wijnaldum reacted.
At Liverpool, it’s Mohamed Salah who is the main penalty-taker, but it was a different story at the AFCON’s.
Whilst Egypt won two shootouts leading up to the final, they managed to drag themselves to a goalless draw after 120 minutes of Sunday’s final.
All eyes were on Mane and Salah ahead of their spot-kicks and who could provide the killer blow for their team.
Not only did Salah suffer heartache with his country losing at the final hurdle, but he didn’t even get a chance to step from the spot.
Both Mane and Salah were positioned fifth on the takers list, but it proved costly for Liverpool’s left-footed speedster, who saw two of his teammates fail to hit the back of the net.
Since then, he has already returned to Merseyside and is ready to lead Liverpool’s charge in the Premier League ahead of their clash against Leicester.
Whereas Mane, understandably so, is still back home celebrating perhaps the greatest night of his footballing career.
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