Senegal’s Superstar, Sadio Mane led the Teranga Lions to their first ever AFCON glory as he helped them beat Egypt 4-2 on penalties after a 120 minutes of barren scoreline at the Olembe Stadium in Cameroon.
The Liverpool forward atoned for his earlier missed opportunity from the penalty spot by splendiferously placing the ball in the bottom left corner of the goalposts to beat Egyptian goalkeeper, Mohammed Abougabal, popularly known as Gabaski.
Mane was the most frightening player for the Senegalese, wreaking hosts of havoc on the Egyptian defense. Senegal enjoyed a bulk of possession, creating a myriad of chances in a bid to open the scoring but astute defending coupled with stupefying goalkeeping from Gabaski meant the swashbuckling encounter would travel to extra- time and eventually to penalty shootouts.
The Zamalek goalie, who has thrilled many with his outstanding goalkeeping, particularly when it comes to shootouts was in imperious form throughout the game. Mane’s through pass to substitute Bamba Dieng was brilliantly saved by the 37th year old in the first half of extra time. He produced another cracking save few minutes later when he palmed away Bamba Dieng’s close range header for a corner kick.
After 120 minutes of fascinating football, the Lions of Teranga could not make their dominance count, and as such needed penalty shootouts to before they could conquer Africa.
Khalidou Koulibaly and Abdou Diallo scored their respective spot kicks for Senegal. Mohammed Abdelmomen missed his kick after A. Zizo had made it 1-1. Bouna Sarr also missed his kick while Marwan Hamdi converted his beautifully.On his turn, Bamba Dieng made it 3-2 by placing the ball on the acute angle of the post. Mohannad Lasheen stepped up in anticipation of making it 3-3 but Edouard Mendy who has always been criticised for being poor in terms of saving penalties, produced a precise save to keep the scores at 3-2. Then, it was now time for Sadio Mane to redeem himself and he made no mistake this time round as he hit the ball with ferocity into the back of the net, sending the travelling Senegalese supporters into a rapturous mood.
The Pharaohs of Egypt were seeking to win the trophy for the eighth time in their history. The last time they tasted AFCON glory was in 2010 where they beat Ghana by a goal to nil, thanks to Mohammed Gedo’s late goal.
Aliou Cisse’s men, before their triumph had being in the finals on two occasions but could not lift the trophy. For instance, in 2002, they were beaten by Cameroon on penalties and in 2019, they fell to an excruciating 0-1 defeat to Algeria. And in their latest attempt, the have now found joy, as they have become the champions of Africa.
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