Record-breaking keeper saves penalty, but Egypt fall to Saudis

AFP  |  Volgograd 

Essam El Hadary, the oldest ever to appear at a World Cup, marked his record achievement with one outstanding penalty save for but was powerless to stop a second in a 2-1 defeat by today.

But scored deep into stoppage time in both halves, with Salem Al-Dawsari's last-gasp winner securing their first victory since a run to the last 16 in 1994.

Mohamed Salah's still have not recorded a finals win in three appearances, despite the talisman's superb opening goal.

El Hadary was 45 years and 161 days old when he took to the field as the two already-eliminated teams in Group A played only for pride.

He smashed the age record set by Faryd Mondragon, who was aged 43 years and three days when he played against in in 2014.

Salah was named in the starting line-up as expected and thrilled an Egyptian-dominated crowd of 36,823 by opening the scoring in trademark fashion after 22 minutes.

The 26-year-old controlled a long ball over the top with one touch of his left boot at pace and did not break stride before lobbing a deft finish with the same foot over the onrushing

Salah at least had the consolation of scoring Egypt's first goal from open play at since May 27, 1934, when netted in a 4-2 defeat by

The Egyptians were still clinging onto their lead when the Saudis were awarded a controversial second penalty deep into first-half stoppage time as Fahad appeared to pull the shirt of the covering before going down in a heap.

But after a VAR-induced review that took almost five minutes to complete, Colombian referee decided to stick with his original decision.

It was second time lucky from the spot as took responsibilty from 12 yards and El Hadary could not repeat his heroics as the first-half clock ticked past 51 minutes.

El Hadary made his debut for in 1996, a year before his Egyptian teammate Ramadan was born.

He is older than three coaches at 2018 -- of Belgium, Serbia's and Aliou Cisse of

The lived up to his nickname of "High Dam" with two stunning saves from headers in the second half.

But in the fifth minute of second-half injury-time, Al-Dawsari popped up in the box to beat El Hadary with the last kick of the match and secure a famous Saudi win.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Mon, June 25 2018. 22:05 IST