Salah has met Bafana twice before in his 110 caps, and both ended in 1-0 defeats as he failed to fire.
He made his international debut in 2011 but it wasn’t until five years later that he had his first run-in with South Africa.
That was in an international friendly at the Orlando Stadium when then Egypt coach Hector Cuper brought his side to face Shakes Mashaba’s Bafana.
An early goal from Mpho Makola settled the contest in the favour of the home side, as Salah played the full 90 minutes but failed to fire.
That Egypt side also had Mohamed Elneny and Trezeguet, so were no pushovers, but reports at the time suggested they were let down by “poor finishing and decision-making by Mohamed Salah”.
Not a great outing for the forward then, who at the time had just joined Roma on a permanent deal and was at the start of the season that would relaunch his career and lead to a move to Liverpool.
Salah’s other meeting with Bafana was more disappointing … by far. Egypt were hosts of the 2019 AFCON and met South Africa in a Round of 16 clash in Cairo.
It was no easy tie for them, but they were expected to advance and mark on to win their first continental title since 2010.
However, Stuart Baxter’s side were resolute and put in an excellent defensive display, before Thembinkosi Lorch’s winner five minutes from the end stunned their hosts and took South Africa into the quarterfinals, where they narrowly lost to Nigeria.
Salah again played the full 90 minutes and again had a poor game.
“Salah takes on, and fails to beat the first man. That was dismal,” says one blow-by-blow report from that game. “Salah backs himself in a footrace with (Sifiso) Hlanti down the right ... and loses,” says another.
“Salah has a belt from distance. It’s blocked. Egypt’s star man has been extremely quiet,” adds a third.
It was a poor performance and from both Salah and the team, and a result that led to much soul-searching within the Egyptian team.
Will he be able to exact revenge this time round?