As the second round of the group stage began, there was no greater individual expectation than that placed on the shoulders of Egypt's Mo Salah. After a sensational season at Liverpool, Salah was expected to be the driving force behind his national team at the World Cup; even after Sergio Ramos took him out of the UEFA Champions League final with a masterful, quote-unquote accidental Fujiwara armbar, he couldn't escape the narrative.

Suddenly, it was all about if he could be ready in time to be the talisman – as he's been referred to all season long by pundits – for Russia 2018. Ominously, this even extended into the games themselves and Egypt's first round loss was more defined by the constant cuts to him sitting on the sidelines in his warm-up gear and bib than the actual on field play itself. Giminez' last gasp header may have made it 1-0, but the immediate shot of Salah looking distraught in the dug out made it seem like a mistake, something that could only happen without him active.

And so, just under a week later, matchday two began with Egypt facing Russia, who were coming off a 5-0 win in their opening game against the Subbuteo skills of Saudi Arabia. The hosts weren't exactly there for the taking, but they hadn't yet faced a challenge and their celebrations could have easily been read as a sign of overconfidence. Having paced the inside of his cage for long enough, the lion Salah was finally ready to be set free.

It was apparent from the start that Russia were scared of him. Both teams lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, but while The Pharoah's right-wing was designed to get the ball from Fathy to El Nenny to Salah and then provide him with space to double team with Mohamed Mohsen, Russia's Roman Zobnin and Yuri Zhirkov were there to box Salah in rather than provide support for their breakout star Denis Cheryshev.

For the first 45 minutes, the Sbornaya – literally "The National Team"; the most prosaic nickname of any team in the tournament – prevented Salah from making any impact whatsoever while trying to nick a goal on the counter, and at half time, manager Stanislav Cherchesov surely must have realized that all of Egypt's hopes were hung on the man from The Kop and so Russia switched tactics and came out swinging in the second half.

Not even two minutes in, Trezeguet had been flattened and Russia pushed forward, instantly forcing an own goal from Fathy. The Russians must have felt like they had wasted the first half being afraid of a paper tiger, and as their tactics became more positive, with their aim to now get the ball to Cheryshev, it started to become clear that Salah was playing through gritted teeth. Tentative in tackles and uneasy going up for the ball, it was now depressingly clear that Salah wasn't anything close to 100 percent.

Barely ten minutes later, Russia sunk their teeth in with a second goal. Fernandes made his way down the right, almost unchallenged and cut back to find Cheryshev who did what he's become famous for. The most Spanish Russian coolly slotted the ball in from inside the box and then went crazy, knowing he'd almost confirmed his team's place in the Round of 16. Not to be outdone, Artem Dzyuba went absolutely ballistic when he got his second goal of the tournament and confirmed his team's place in the Round of 16.

To paraphrase Tolstoy's opening lines to Anna Karenina, all happy teams are all alike; all unhappy teams are unhappy in their own way. As with the Egypt's opening game, the director couldn't take his eyes of Mo Salah, but where his body language radiated unfulfilled potential, this time, he looked like a man being crushed in slow motion and the third goal left him bereft. His consolation VAR-assisted penalty in the 73rd minute to end the game 3-1 confirmed what everyone suspected; he looked like he'd personally let the team down because, through no fault of his own, he had. Egypt weren't simply relying on him, Egypt had nothing else.