Vincent Aboubakar Wasn't In The Mood To Talk After Mohamed Salah Comments

Vincent Aboubakar was less chatty after losing to Egypt on Thursday night, than the Cameroon captain was about Mohamed Salah before kick off.

Talking smack in sport isn't exactly new and sometimes it even pays off, but we've often see it backfire, and in boxing and UFC that can be in a big way.

However we don't see it so much in football, so it was perhaps a nice change of pace when Cameroon striker Aboubakar spoke about Salah ahead of their Africa Cup of Nations semi-final on Thursday.

Aboubakar claimed the opposing captain didn't 'impress him much,' a bold strategy against man whose scored 111 Premier League goals in 165 appearances for Liverpool and 47 times in 81 for his country, but Shania Twain would have enjoyed it.

However Salah ended up having the last laugh, as Egypt beat the hosts on penalties to go through to the final, and after the match Aboubakar walked straight through the media mix zone and refused to answer questions about his opponent.

It wasn't all negative from the Cameroon forward, who'd said, "He’s a good player, he scores a lot but he doesn’t produce a lot of stuff in the game."

But then followed it up with, "Of course, he’s doing good stuff in the Premier League because he’s been in a team that’s been there for years. He’s a good player but not at the level of some like [Kylian] Mbappe."

And to an extent the former Porto striker probably would have been left a little unimpressed with Salah, as the Egypt captain finished the game with zero goals or assists, in the 0-0 draw.

The Liverpool forward didn't even get to take a penalty as, apart from Aboubakar, Cameroon's efforts were awful and three players missed.

It's unlikely that Salah will face quite so much smack talk from the opposition ahead of Sunday's final, as he will be up against a very familiar face in Sadio Mane.

The two Liverpool forward's will actually play each other three times in the coming months, all in extremely important games for their respective countries.

Following Sunday's final between Egypt and Senegal, the two sides will meet twice in March in the World Cup qualifying play-offs, meaning only one of them will be in Qatar in the winter.

Jurgen Klopp and all Liverpool fans won't care who wins any of those games, just that their two stars return without any injuries.