Egyptian Mohamed Salah and Senegalese Sadio Mané, both teammates at Liverpool in England, will meet this Sunday in the grand final of the Africa Cup of Nations played in Cameroon. Egypt reached that stage on Thursday afternoon after beating the local team 3-1 in a penalty shootout after drawing 0-0 over 120 minutes of play, while Senegal had done so yesterday after beating Burkina Faso 3-1, who will play Cameroon on Saturday for third and fourth place.
The great protagonist of the penalty shootout was Mohamed Gabaski, the Egyptian goalkeeper, who saved two penalties from Cameroonians Harold Moukoudi and James Lea Siliki, and the remarkable fact was that Salah did not take a penalty as he had been reserved for the fifth and final one, which was not necessary. Zizo, Mohamed Abdelmonem and Mohanad Lasheen scored for Egypt, which reaches the final after having beaten Ivory Coast in the round of 16 (5-4 on penalties) and Morocco 2-1 in the quarterfinals, and is the record winner of the Cup with seven titles, while Senegal has never won the continental tournament.
It should be noted that Egypt and Senegal will also decide one of the five African spots for the World Cup in Qatar as they will play each other in one of the five qualifying ties. The matches will take place on March 24 and 31.