Mohamed Salah’s Egypt is in the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals after defeating hosts Cameroon 3-1 in penalties after the 120-minute game without a goal at Yaounde this Thursday.
Salah, typically the fifth penalty-taker in his country, wasn’t required to shoot out as Egypt progressed to an ultimate showdown with Senegal in the Olembe Stadium on Sunday.
Goalkeeper Mohamed Abou Gabal was the Egyptian hero in the shoot-out, stopping two of Harold Moukoudi and James Lea-Siliki at the Olembe Stadium before Clinton Njie shot wide when Cameroon had the last opportunity to ensure their hopes alive.
This will result in Salah facing the Liverpool teammates Sadio Mane as the Pharaohs seeking a record-breaking eighth African title while Senegal continues to chase their first trophy.
“We are very proud of our achievement today, but there is one more step to go,” said Egypt assistant coach Diaa al-Sayed after Carlos Queiroz was sent off in the game.
Cameroon has seen their dreams of AFCON glory at home were shattered, and they have to finish third in a play-off with Burkina Faso this weekend.
“We are sad, and so are 27 million Cameroonians, but that’s football,” said coach Toni Conceicao.
Only ten days had passed since the incident at the venue, in which eight people died, and 38 were injured just before Cameroon’s last-16 victory over Comoros.
The Confederation of African Football had temporarily shut down the stadium in anticipation of inquiry into incidents which resulted in the denial of the chance to play in a quarter-final before granting the green signal to reopen.
Many fans were dissuaded from going back to Olembe just a few days after the tragedy, with only 24,371 in the venue’s 60,000 seats.
Many more could have been present in the absence of Covid restrictions restricting attendance 80 per cent capacity.
The absence of fans was a pity in a football-loving country.
Cameroon and Egypt are two of the most successful teams during Cup of Nations history -The Indomitable Lions’ tally of five titles is only beaten by Pharaohs.
Queiroz sees red
The Egyptians faced a goal with settling in their quest to find revenge on their 2-1 loss to the Indomitable Lions in 2017 final.
Vincent Aboubakar came off the bench to score the winning goal.
A critical substitute, Aboubakar is now Cameroon’s captain and is the top goal scorer at this tournament, scoring six goals.
He was so confident before the game that he ruled out Salah’s threat in an interview on radio, and the Egyptian captain was a peripheral figure in this game as he was too often an insignificant player on the right side.
He did miss a fantastic opportunity to score during the second period following a terrible back-pass from Martin Hongla sent the ball over.
Cameroon goalkeeper Andre Onana came out to save the ball.
Aboubakar had a tough time making an impact, even though the hosts had been dominant in the first period and nearly scored within the first minute of the match as Michael Ngadeu could head a corner over the woodwork.
Samuel Oum Gouet also saw an extended piledriver cut the left upright during the second quarter.
In the meantime, the Egyptians fell at every opportunity, constantly seeking to consume time and frustrate their opponents.
Usually, they walked away unharmed, and they ended the match with 11 players.
However, coach Queiroz who had already lost the assistant he was directing due to a ban, was handed a red card towards the conclusion of standard time because he threw tempers at the touchline.
Egypt’s third extra-time in knockout matches following the need for penalties to defeat in the Ivory Coast in the last 16 and an additional half-hour to beat Morocco during the quarter-finals.
Extra time passed, with penalties appearing inevitable, as Aboubakar proved to be the one player to take liability for Cameroon when they went out.
