Africa-Press – Angola. Sadio Mané’s Senegal won, Sunday (06), their first African Cup of Nations, beating Egypt on penalties (4-5), after a draw (0-0) after regulation time.
A victory that justifies all the superiority shown in all phases of the challenge as illustrated by the statistic itself. For the Leões de Teranga there were 533 ball possessions (Egypt 430), made 8 shots on goal (Egypt 3), managed 58% of ball possession (Egypt, 42%)), showed 81% passing accuracy (Egypt) , just to show this…
In the series of penalties against Senegal, it was worth the decisive save by the goalkeeper Mendy when he saved the shot of the Egyptian defender Mohamed Ahmed, the other failure of the Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Abdelmonem and… Mané that, with account and measure, the penalty that missed in the first part of the game.
Senegal on the whole “sent” because they exploited in the best way the tactical errors and other deficiencies with which Egypt entered the field where they intended to lift their eighth trophy.
The Lions of Teranga knew perfectly well the history of the Pharaohs and, for this reason, they knew, from the beginning, to take away from opponents who, as a matter of fact, were less brilliant in the group stage, where they always had to fight for more 120 minutes to reach the final, successively eliminating Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco and Cameroon.
This fact was very well exploited by Senegal, who always won during regulation time, and by the fact that they had one more day of rest than Egypt, until the final.
Yesterday’s game was revealing of that. The effect of physical fatigue on top-level football influences many and here, Aliou Cissé’s men overcame the Egyptians.
Another advantage very well exploited by Senegal was the fact that Egypt presented an unusual “eleven” due to injuries and disciplinary punishments of some of its influential players, which, by the way, affected the performance of the Pharaohs. In all, they were one of the five players who did not play in the final. He had two yellow cards received in the semi-final against Cameroon, one of them being defender Omar Kamal who weakened the team’s “iron curtain”.
Akram Taoufik, right-back, suffered a serious injury due to torn ligaments. With these casualties, it is clear that Egypt had to make adaptations that worked Sunday. He hoped to count on his prodigy, Mo’ Salah, his collective strength, to face and defeat Sadio Mané’s Senegal, which did not happen.
Egypt can only complain about itself. Pharaohs coach Carlos Queiroz could not be on the bench yesterday, leaving his team without a master at the helm. And this casualty “worked” as a severe blow to the “Egyptian armada”.
It was, moreover, an electrifying game, where it must be recognized, there was a good performance by the refereeing trio led by the South African Victor Gomes. Assisted by his compatriot Zakhele Siwela and Souru Phatsoane (from Lesotho) did a job that is undisputed.
Senegal, for the achievement, will pocket a check for 5 million dollars. That’s 500,000 more than the dethroned Algeria received in the last edition.
For More News And Analysis About Angola Follow Africa-Press
