PHOTO: Skynews
SOURCE: Skynews, Sunday, February 6th, 2022 10:23pm
Senegal have won the African Cup of Nations for the first time, beating Egypt on penalties after a goalless draw.
It fell to Liverpool star Sadio Mane, who had missed a penalty given in the sixth minute of the game, to seal the win for Senegal with the final kick of the tournament.
Egypt were fancied by many heading into the match having won the tournament seven times before, although Senegal had made it to the final of the 2019 tournament.
Both teams had struggled to show much attacking prowess throughout the tournament, despite being headlined by Liverpool forwards Sadio Mane for Senegal and Mohamed Salah for Egypt.
Cameroon hosted Africa’s flagship football tournament for the first time in 50 years.
The stage for the final was the Olembe Stadium in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde, which was marred by tragedy two weeks earlier when eight fans were killed in a stampede outside.
Officials said about 50,000 people had tried to attend the match. The stadium has a capacity of 60,000 but it was not meant to be more than 80% full due to COVID restrictions.
A quarterfinal fixture at the stadium had been moved as a result of the stampede, but matches resumed from the semi-final onwards following a review.
Mane’s early penalty was a powerful effort but into the centre of the goal, allowing Egypt’s renowned penalty-saving keeper Mohamed About Gabal to thump it away.
His opponent had received some whispered advice from Mane’s Liverpool teammate Salah just seconds before the Senegalese striker took his shot.
But when the forward stepped up during the penalty shootout he whipped a ferocious strike inside the side netting, offering Gabal no chance.
It was a thrilling end to a tournament that had seen controversy as well as tragedy.
A group stage game was thrown into chaos after the full-time whistle was twice blown before the full 90 minutes had been played.