AFCON 2021: First time winners Senegal beat Egypt on penalties to lift trophy
Senegal has beaten Egypt on penalties to win the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in their history on Sunday at the Olembe Stadium in Yaoundé.
A goalless 120 minutes saw the final go to a shootout, where Sadio Mane redeemed himself for missing a penalty earlier in the match by netting the decisive spot kick in Cameroon.
Mane’s Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah did not take a penalty in the shootout, with Mohanad Lasheen’s miss ensuring that Egypt did not have a chance to take their fifth spot kick.
In a match that was billed as a showdown between Salah and Mane, it was the latter who had the big chance to produce the decisive moment in normal time when Senegal were awarded a penalty within five minutes.
Mohamed Abdelmonem’s lunging challenge left the referee with no option but to point to the spot, but Mane saw his penalty saved by Gabaski when trying to blast it down the middle.
By contrast, Salah was largely kept quiet throughout the night, although he did show glimpses of his quality to draw a couple of saves from Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy in the first half.
Goalscoring opportunities were relatively scarce for the Pharaohs throughout the 90 minutes, but they did begin to grow into the game more in the second half before entering the familiar territory of extra time.
Egypt had been taken the full distance in each of their three previous knockout games, and that proved to be the case again.
There were chances for both sides to win it in extra time, with Bamba Dieng being thwarted on three separate occasions by Gabaski and Mendy pulling off a fine stop to deny Zizo a dramatic late winner.
Neither could break the deadlock, though, as Egypt went into their third shootout of the tournament – although on this occasion they fell short.
Missed penalties from Abdelmonem and Lasheen, either side of Senegal’s Bouna Sarr seeing his spot kick saved, allowed Mane the chance to write his name into the history books.
Rather than going down the middle again, Mane tucked his penalty into the bottom corner to hand Senegal their first ever Africa Cup of Nations title.
The last seven editions of the tournament have now been won by seven different nations, with Egypt failing in their bid to lift the trophy for a record-extending eighth time.
The two countries will soon renew hostilities in a World Cup qualifying playoff double-header in March.
