SPORT: Football
How Egypt and Senegal qualified for the CAN semi-finals.

Egypt pro­gressed to a semi-final match against tour­na­ment hosts Cameroon, a repeat of the 2017 final which Cameroon won.

Egypt and Sene­gal have reached the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), paving the way for a poten­tial show­down between Liv­er­pool team-mates Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane if both of their teams progress to the final .

Salah scored the equal­iz­er and cre­at­ed the win­ner to inspire Egyp­t’s come­back to beat Moroc­co 2–1 after extra time in Sun­day’s first quar­ter-final at the Ahmadou Ahid­jo sta­di­um in the Cameroon­ian cap­i­tal, Yaounde.

Lat­er, at the same venue, Mane set up Fama­ra Died­hiou for Sene­gal’s open­er in a 3–1 win over Equa­to­r­i­al Guinea. Sub­sti­tutes Cheikhou Kouy­ate and Ismaila Sarr fin­ished Equa­to­r­i­al Guinea, who had equal­ized through Jan­nick Buy­la min­utes after being award­ed a penal­ty and then hav­ing it removed through a VAR check.

Sene­gal will now face Burk­i­na Faso in the first semi-final on Wednes­day when Mane’s side aim for a sec­ond straight final — and shed the unwant­ed label of ‘the best team to nev­er win an AFCON title’.

For their part, Egypt will face tour­na­ment hosts Cameroon, a repeat of the 2017 final won by Cameroon. Thurs­day’s semi-final will also be a clash between the two most suc­cess­ful teams in AFCON his­to­ry, with 12 titles between them.

Egypt have not won the African Cup since their record sev­enth title in 2010. Salah made his nation­al team debut the year after that tri­umph and is still seek­ing a first major title with his country.

In the quar­ter-finals on Sun­day, Egypt fell behind against Moroc­co on a penal­ty won by Achraf Haki­mi and con­vert­ed by Sofi­ane Boufal in the sev­enth minute.

Egypt cap­tain Salah react­ed quick­ly to hit a rebound to make it 1–1 in the 53rd and sent a per­fect low cross for Mah­moud Has­san “Trezeguet” to tap in late in the first half of extra time.

Moroc­co’s cap­tain Romain Saiss, left, falls as he fails to defend against Egyp­t’s Mohamed Salah in the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations quar­ter-final soc­cer match between Egypt and Moroc­co Moroc­co at the Ahmadou Ahid­jo sta­di­um in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on Sun­day Jan­u­ary 30, 2022.

In the oth­er game, Mane’s pass opened up the Equa­to­r­i­al Guinea defense for cen­tre-for­ward Died­hiou to score in the 28th minute.
In the oth­er game, Mane’s pass opened up the Equa­to­r­i­al Guinea defense for cen­tre-for­ward Died­hiou to score in the 28th minute.

Sene­gal appeared in con­trol but received a first warn­ing when cap­tain Kali­dou Koulibaly was award­ed a penal­ty in the 50th minute. It was waived by ref­er­ee Vic­tor Gomes after see­ing on VAR that Kouliba­ly’s right hand was at his side when the ball hit him.

Equa­to­r­i­al Guinea scored their goal sev­en min­utes lat­er, but the intro­duc­tion of Kouy­ate and Sarr as sub­sti­tutes paid off for Sene­gal coach Aliou Cissé.

Kouy­ate gave Sene­gal the lead just three min­utes after com­ing on when he pounced on a mis­tak­en defen­sive head­er. Sarr fin­ished after bril­liant work on the left wing from Saliou Ciss.