Mané beats Salah: Senegal wins Africa Cup for the first time after penalty shootout against Egypt | Foreign football

Mohamed Salah, that other star attacker from Liverpool, did not even have a turn in the penalty shootout. That happened to him on Thursday evening in the semi-final against Cameroon. Then that was after three misses by Cameroon, tonight after two players from Egypt (Mohamed Abdelmonem and Mohamed Lasheen) failed to score from eleven meters and a fifth penalty for Egypt was no longer there.

Senegal was already in the final in 2002 and 2019, but lost both times. Three years ago, Mané was still the losing finalist, when Algeria won the final with a goal from Baghdad Bounedjah after two minutes. Egypt is the record holder with seven overall victories. The country won the African Cup in 2006, 2008 and 2010, but since then no further successes have been achieved.

Senegal already received a penalty in the seventh minute, after a foul by Egyptian defender Mohamed Abdelmonem on Senegalese left back Saliou Ciss. Sadio Mane went behind the ball, but not before Mohamed Salah had some tips for goalkeeper Mohamed Abou Gabal, better known as Gabaski. That worked out well, because Gabaski saved Mané’s penalty beautifully. Zamalek’s 33-year-old and 1.96 meters tall goalkeeper has been with the Egyptian selection for eleven years, but only played his seventh international game tonight. He came on target in this tournament when Mohamed El Shenawy suffered a hamstring injury in the 88th minute in the eighth final against Ivory Coast.

Gabaski then saved Manchester United defender Eric Bailly’s penalty in the penalty shootout, sending Egypt to the semi-finals. Gabaski then also kept strong in the quarterfinals against Morocco (2-1 win after extra time) and stopped two penalties in the series against Cameroon on Thursday evening, as a result of which the host country lost 3-1 and Salah no longer even had to build from eleven meters.

Tonight it also came down to penalties, which is the third time for Egypt in the four matches in the knockout phase of this Africa Cup. Egypt has scored just four times in its seven matches at this tournament. Senegal had always won within 90 minutes on the way to the final. That happened successively against Cape Verde (2-0), Equatorial Guinea (3-1) and Burkina Faso (3-1).

Egypt and Senegal will meet again at the end of March. Then they will face each other twice in a week in the play-offs for a ticket for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar at the end of this year.