Sadio Mane made up for missing from the spot in normal time to score the decisive penalty as Senegal overcame Mohamed Salah’s Egypt 4-2 in a shoot-out to win their first Africa Cup of Nations title after Sunday’s final finished goalless at the end of extra time.

Mane had seen Mohamed Abou Gabal save his seventh-minute penalty at the Olembe Stadium in Yaounde but Egypt could not capitalise as they went all the way to extra time for the fourth consecutive game at this Cup of Nations.

Salah was due to step up to take Egypt’s fifth penalty but with Mohamed Abdelmonem hitting the post and Mohanad Lasheen having his kick saved by Edouard Mendy, the Liverpool star did not get his chance and was already on the verge of tears as his club team-mate Mane prepared to strike the decisive blow.

After two previous final defeats, Senegal are Cup of Nations winners at last, while Egypt missed out on a record-extending eighth continental crown that would also have been a first for Salah.

Senegal’s celebrations followed a disappointing final, the fifth in the last 11 editions of the tournament to be decided in a shoot-out after a goalless draw.

Indeed Egypt had already twice won finals that had been settled on penalties after finishing 0-0, and they had already won in the same manner twice in the last fortnight, against the Ivory Coast in the last 16 and the hosts in the semi-finals.

Not Salah’s night

This time their luck ran out as the tournament ended at the venue where eight people died and 38 were injured in a crush on January 24.

The country’s 88-year-old President, Paul Biya, attended the closing ceremony where he was paraded in an open-top car to hysterical crowds along with his wife, First Lady Chantal Biya.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino and CAF chief Patrice Motsepe were also in attendance although the biggest cheers were reserved for Cameroon great Samuel Eto’o, now the head of the country’s football federation, when his face appeared on the big screens.

A four-time African player of the year and two-time AFCON winner, Eto’o is one of the continent’s all-time great footballers, but this final brought together Africa’s current superstar duo in Salah and Mane.

Desperate to make up for losing the 2019 final to Algeria, Senegal had a golden early chance to take the lead when outstanding left-back Saliou Ciss was chopped down by Abdelmonem in the box.

Mane stepped up, but his kick was too close to the middle of the goal and Abou Gabal was able to save.

Salah needed nearly half an hour to make a genuine impact with a jinking run in from the right and a shot easily saved by Mendy, and the Chelsea goalkeeper then produced an excellent stop to tip a Salah effort over just before half-time.

Extra time again

Aliou Cisse’s Senegal team boast a plethora of stars based at major European clubs while Salah and Arsenal’s Mohamed Elneny are exceptions in an Egyptian side still largely based at home.

Carlos Queiroz’s team are masters of the dark arts and the Portuguese coach himself was suspended here after losing his temper in the semi-final and being sent off.

Their coaching staff pulled the strings on the touchline, moving Salah into a central role after an hour, and substitute centre-forward Marwan Hamdy missed a glorious chance soon after as he headed wide from point-blank range.

By then it was clear that Egypt were willing to go to extra time again, sure that they could rely on more heroics from their goalkeeper.

Abou Gabal, nicknamed Gabaski, clawed away Boulaye Dia’s 100th-minute header after a fine cross by Ciss, and he also kept out a Bamba Dieng piledriver in the second period of extra time.

With Mendy saving from Hamdy at the other end, penalties were inevitable, and it proved to be Senegal’s night with Bouna Sarr their only player to miss his kick.

Source: AFP

Egypt or Senegal? Or maybe a more absorbing question for world soccer fans: Mohamed Salah or Liverpool teammate Sadio Mané?

Sunday’s African Cup of Nations final in Cameroon will center on two of the continent’s biggest stars, now global stars, when Salah’s Egypt tries to reclaim its lost glory against Mané’s Senegal, which is seeking a first title and the right to finally call itself the best in Africa.

The two forwards will be on opposing sides at the Olembe Stadium in Yaounde and while their teams are playing for bigger rewards, there will be significant focus on who wins the personal battle between the club mates.

One of them is set for unrestrained joy and his first major title with his country. One is set for more misery. Salah lost in the final with Egypt in 2017, and Mané was inconsolable after Senegal lost in the final in 2019.

Mané partly predicted the matchup in a video he posted on social media at the start of the African Cup. He was cheekily addressing Liverpool teammates Salah and Naby Keita of Guinea when he said he knew he was going to face one of them in the final, he just didn’t know which.

“Unfortunately I can’t play against two teams in the final so I have to play against one,” Mané said. “Which of you?”

Turned out to be Egypt after the North Africans took the hard road to the final, beating Ivory Coast on penalties in the round of 16, Morocco in extra time in the quarterfinals and host Cameroon in another shootout in the semifinals.

That game against Cameroon saw Egypt coach Carlos Queiroz given a red card for his angry protests against some of the referee’s decisions and he will be banned from the touchline for the final.

Egypt raised the possibility of the final being put back a day to Monday to help them recover because they played their semifinal on Thursday, while Senegal had an extra day to prepare after beating Burkina Faso 3-1 on Wednesday. The Confederation of African Football hasn’t agreed to that request and the final goes ahead as scheduled.

It’s turned out to be an ideal climax for the African Cup and its attempts to attract more attention than usual. They will be watching in Merseyside, said Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp.

“They (Salah and Mané) are superstars there so the pressure they had on their shoulders was massive, and how they deal with it, I’m really proud of them,” Klopp said. “We will watch it, definitely.”

Both players lived up to their big reputations at the African Cup.

Mané scored Senegal’s first goal of the tournament and was on target again in the round of 16 and the semifinals, when he inspired the win over Burkina Faso by setting up one goal and scoring another.

Likewise, Salah delivered the goal for Egypt’s first win in Cameroon, buried the decisive penalty in the shootout against Ivory Coast in the last 16 and scored again in the quarterfinals against Morocco.

One of them will also end up being part of a landmark moment for their country at the African Cup.

Egypt is the record seven-time African champion but having won three straight titles in 2006, ’08 and ’10 in the pre-Salah era, it failed to qualify at all for the next three tournaments when Salah was on the team. Egypt nearly returned to its pedestal in 2017, when it lost to Cameroon in the final.

Egypt now has arguably the best player in the world in Salah, its captain. He said the team must “keep our feet on the ground.”

“But … we are having a very good tournament,” Salah added.

For years, Senegal has had to carry the label of being the best team never to win an African Cup. Senegal made the quarterfinals of the World Cup in 2002, an achievement that many believed would be the start of a run of success in Africa. Two decades later, it still has no African Cup titles.

Senegal’s story could finally change on Sunday.

“I think you can see on my face how happy I am,” Mané said after making the final.

Source:  AP soccer

After coming into their own in the knockouts, Senegal are tipped to win their first ever Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday, as they take on Egypt, starring Liverpool’s Mo Salah, the greatest African player of the contemporary game.

It will be a clash of two Liverpool titans as Senegal’s talisman Sadio Mané takes on Egypt’s talisman Salah. Senegal are hungry to fulfil their longstanding promise and finally win the Africa Cup of Nations – while Salah is hungry to take a trophy with his national team after Premier League and Champions League triumphs with his club.

It is easy to see why the Teranga Lions went into the tournament as favourites. Mané provides lacerating pace, dazzling creativity and clinical finishing skills. They have arguably the best shot-stopper playing today in the shape of Chelsea goalkeeper Édouard Mendy. Napoli’s rock-solid defensive linchpin Kalidou Koulibaly and PSG box-to-box midfielder Idrissa Gueye – Senegal’s two world-class stars – have the field between the goalposts and upfront covered.

An Africa Cup of Nations victory for Senegal has seemed like a matter of time, ever since they enraptured football fans the world over in the 2002 World Cup, humiliating champions France – the magnificent Bleus of Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira – with a stunning victory.

The air of inevitability faded at this year’s tournament as Senegal won their group stage in desultory fashion. Their opening match was a drab affair against minnows Zimbabwe, which saw them prevail thanks to a penalty of doubtful merit in the seventh minute of extra time. Perhaps the low point was a flaccid 0-0 draw against Malawi, where the likes of Mané played like much less talented players, fluffing passes and moving sluggishly.

But rather like the victorious Bleus in the 2018 World Cup, Senegal burst into life in the knockouts. The Teranga Lions started to roar with a decisive quarterfinal victory, slaying the tournament’s giant-killers Equatorial Guinea. 

They stepped up a gear in the semifinals against a tenacious, well-disciplined Burkina Faso. The floodgates opened some 20 minutes into the second half. Abdou Diallo scored from close range after Koulibaly reached a corner with an amazing bicycle-kick pass. Six minutes later a majestic Mané run handed a goal to Bamba Dieng.

Burkina Faso rattled Senegal when Blati Touré knocked a cross into the back of the net. But they showed the pertinacity that makes champions, soon reimposing themselves when Mané surged to meet a penetrating pass, went one-on-one with the keeper and coolly lobbed it into the back of the net.

This sparkling form will make the Teranga Lions tough opponents for the Pharaohs. But Egypt, too, have shown the resoluteness required of champions – albeit in more prosaic form. They have prevailed in three consecutive matches that went into extra time, first defeating the formidable Ivory Coast team that had just humiliated title-holders Algeria.

Egypt were the underdogs in the semifinals against hosts Cameroon, whom many tipped to win the competition amid the rampant goalscoring form of strikers Vincent Aboubakar and Karl Toko-Ekambi. But they fought back after Cameroon dominated the first half – forcing the game into extra time and then penalties. Egypt were cool, calm and collected at the spot kick, and so was Gabaski between the goalposts. They kept their nerve when Cameroon faltered to send the hosts packing.

While their victory over Cameroon exemplified Egypt’s cool determination, the Pharaohs’ victory over Morocco exhibited another prime reason why they could take the trophy: Mo Salah. Despite the presence of some highly competent players – the likes of striker David Trezeguet and right-back Omar Kamal – Egypt frankly lack the star talent Senegal have scattered around their lineup. But so far they have more than made up for it with Salah’s presence.

In the Morocco match everything rested on Salah. First he bashed in a ruthlessly opportunistic goal from close range as the ball bounced towards the six-yard line. Then the Liverpool icon created the winner with a glittering dash down the right – the stuff of defenders’ nightmares – to tee up Trezeguet for an easy finish.

For his part, Salah is determined to go back to his club with an Africa Cup of Nations winners’ medal. Ahead of the tournament he told journalists: “I can assure you that it is the trophy that I want to win most. I work to win it and that is the story with all the Egyptian players present here.”

But Salah will have to battle it out with his Liverpool strike partner Mané. As their club manager Jurgen Klopp pointed out in a press conference: “Now it’s obviously not so easy because one will definitely be really happy after and the other one much less so, but both have a good chance to achieve something really big.”

Culled from France 24

Cameroon Football Federation president Samuel Eto’o has been accused of sending a “very bad message” with his “war” comments ahead of the AFCON semi-final with Egypt.

Host nation Cameroon will face off with Egypt on Thursday night and the victor will set up a final with Senegal, who booked their spot thanks to a Sadio Mane-inspired 3-1 victory over Burkina Faso.

Mane’s Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah has also been in fine form and chipped in with a goal and an assist as Egypt overcame Morocco in extra time in the quarter-finals.

Cameroon, meanwhile, made light work of Gambia to reach the semi-finals with a 2-0 victory last Saturday.

After the match, Eto’o delivered a speech to the dressing room in which he could be heard comparing the last-four clash with Egypt to “war”.

The footage was shared on the Facebook page of the Cameroon Football Federation, of which Eto’o was elected president last December.

The former Barcelona, Inter Milan and Chelsea striker won two AFCON titles during his glittering career and many view him as the continent’s greatest ever player.

But Egypt boss Carlos Queiroz is less than impressed by his attempts to fire-up the Cameroon players with what he views as insensitive and inappropriate language.

“It’s a very unfortunate comment, a very bad approach, a very bad message to the people of Cameroon,” Queiroz said, per BBC Sport.

“To make this declaration of war before one game [shows he] didn’t learn anything when he was in professional football.

“Football is not about war. Football is about celebration, it’s about joy, it’s about happiness.”

The tournament is being played against a tragic backdrop after eight people were killed and dozens injured during a stampede ahead of Cameroon’s encounter with Comoros in late January.

The semi-final versus Egypt is the first match to take place at Olembe Stadium since the distressing event unfolded outside the 60,000-seater ground.

“He forgot that people died at the stadium [a few] days ago,” Queiroz said as he continued his response to Eto’o, before urging the Confederation of African Football to show him a “red card”.

“To the war that was proposed by Mr Eto’o – we are going to answer with the best football, the best attitude, the best quality because this what the people expect from us,” Queiroz added.

“This is what the world wants – the Africa Cup of Nations to create honour, dignity – it cannot be a war – give me a break.”

Source: The Mirror