YAOUNDÉ — Senegal once again stands on the brink of a
first
Africa Cup of Nations title but they must get the better of record
seven-time champions Egypt in Sunday’s final in Yaounde which sees Liverpool
stars
Sadio Mane and
Mohamed Salah face off for the trophy.
اضافة اعلان
It has been a
difficult tournament for Cameroon, scarred by the deadly Olembe Stadium crush
of January 24 and troubled by organizational chaos and poor attendances, yet it
has thrown up a heavyweight final showdown between two African giants.
Cameroon hoped
to be there themselves, but the five-time AFCON winners who dreamed of lifting
the trophy on home soil were beaten on penalties by the Egyptians in Thursday’s
semi-final.
As a country,
Egypt have the experience of seven past Cup of Nations victories, although the
most recent was in 2010 when they claimed their third in a row.
Salah made his
international debut the following year and is now desperate to win silverware
with the Pharaohs having already been in the team that lost the 2017 final to
Cameroon and then went out prematurely as hosts in 2019.
Senegal,
meanwhile, have the status of Africa’s top-ranked national team but also the
pressure of a nation to finally claim their first
Cup of Nations crown after
losing to Algeria in the deciding game two and a half years ago.
“We knew it was
not going to be at all easy to get to two straight AFCON finals, but the most
important for us now is to go all the way and win it,” Mane said after scoring
one goal and making another in the 3-1 semi-final defeat of Burkina Faso.
The Lions of
Teranga are hoping it will be third time lucky in the final after they also
lost the title decider in 2002, going down on penalties to Cameroon.
Aliou Cisse was
the captain of that team and then the coach in 2019. Nobody knows better than
him what it would mean to Senegal to get the monkey off their back.
Egyptian fatigue a
factor?
His side must take advantage of the extra day’s rest afforded them
given their semi-final was played 24 hours earlier than that of their
opponents, and Senegal have also come through all three knockout ties in 90
minutes.
In stark
contrast,
Carlos Queiroz’s Egypt required penalties to beat the Ivory Coast in
the last 16 and extra time to overcome Morocco in the quarter-finals before another
shoot-out against Cameroon — the equivalent of a whole extra match in often
energy-sapping conditions.
That explains
why
Egypt assistant coach Diaa Al-Sayed suggested moving the final back a day
to allow his team more time to recover.
“Senegal have one
extra day to train and therefore maybe we should play the final on Monday,” he
said after the semi-final.
This Cup of
Nations has already seen the Confederation of
African Football announce
last-minute venue changes without offering an official explanation, while the
third-place play-off was belatedly brought forward a day to Saturday.
Egypt, though,
will not get their wish and must try to avoid the fate of Croatia, who
similarly needed two penalty shoot-out wins and another in extra time to reach
the 2018 World Cup final, where they were well beaten by France.
“We are the only
team that has played three times 120 minutes but we are very well prepared
physically and we have the commitment needed to keep going to the end,”
insisted Al-Sayed.
Egypt will be without
veteran Portuguese coach Queiroz after he was shown a red card against
Cameroon, while right-back Omar Kamal is suspended too.
They must also
hope Salah can have more of an impact on the game than he did in the semi-final
when he often appeared isolated on the right flank.
Without doubt
Senegal have the greater depth, from Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy in goal to skipper
Kalidou Koulibaly in central defense, Paris Saint-Germain’s
Idrissa Gana Gueye
in midfield, and Mane on the wing.
Mane, like Salah, gets the
attention but Senegal will hope their collective strength can make the
difference.
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