Preview: Saudi Arabia vs Egypt

There’s always at least one of these games in the final round of matches. The forlornly pointless clash between two eliminated sides desperately trying to lift themselves to scrap for third place.

It’s hard to think that too many people beyond hardcore Salah fans will be watching this one rather than the battle for top spot between a Uruguay side that has struggled yet won two games without conceding and a Russian team that has defied all expectation to roar into the knockouts with eight goals in two games.

With motivation so hard to predict for a game that ultimately doesn’t matter, it’s very hard to get excited about Egypt at odds-on even if the presence of Mo Salah means they are undoubtedly the superior side here.

There’s something to be said for the draw here, a result that at least allows both sides to leave the tournament with something. That’s 13/5 and looks as good a bet as any in this one.

And frankly any time you can get odds as close to evens as the 10/11 on offer here for Salah to score against a team as limited as Saudi Arabia you should probably take it.

But overall it’s a game to treat with huge caution. There’s just too much guesswork involved in trying to predict the motivation for each side when there is no tangible reward on offer for either side.

·         Draw at 13/5

·         Mo Salah to score at 10/11