Mane Defeats Salah, Brings Senegal To Win African Cup Of Nations

Senegal wins Africa Cup of Nations 2021 (Twitter @CAF_Online)

JAKARTA - Sadio Mane made up for his failure to execute a penalty kick in the first half by converting a shot from the penalty spot in a high five to send Senegal over Egypt. Mane and team successfully won their first African Cup of Nations, Monday morning.

Mane also finally established himself as the victorious side in the unofficial duel between the two Liverpool stars against his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Salah.

Mané is like: 🙂 #TotalEnergiesAFCON | #AFCON2021 pic.twitter.com/U7CzNFfhn3

— #TotalEnergiesAFCON2021 🏆 (@CAF_Online) February 6, 2022

Citing Antara, both teams played 0-0 for 120 minutes in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations final at Stade d'Olembe, Yaounde, Cameroon, until the Liverpool star managed to score in his second penalty kick of the game to give Senegal a 4-2 win.

Mane squandered a chance to put Senegal ahead in the seventh minute of the first half when his penalty was saved by Egypt goalkeeper Mohamed Abou Gabal.

On the other hand, Mohamed Salah and Egypt failed to win their eighth African title. Salah did not have time to kick in this penalty shootout because it was no longer needed considering that two of his colleagues failed to enter the ball, while only one Senegal player failed.

Sadio Mane scored the winner with a penalty kick as Senegal claimed their first African Cup of Nations title with a 4-2 penalty shootout win over seven-time winners Egypt following a 0-0 draw in the decider in Yaounde on Sunday.

Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy blocked Mohanad Lasheen's penalty in the shootout to give Mane a chance to seal the win.

Mohamed Abou Gabal himself was named the "man of the match" in this final.

⚽ Shoot-out Goal 🥅#TeamSenegal | ✅✅❌✅✅#TeamEgypt | ✅❌✅❌#TotalEnergiesAFCON2021 | #AFCON2021 | #SENEGY pic.twitter.com/h1MteyQHTO

— #TotalEnergiesAFCON2021 🏆 (@CAF_Online) February 6, 2022

Senegal deserved to win this tournament because during 120 minutes of this final match they were a much better team than Egypt by creating far more goal chances and dominating the pitch throughout the match.

Egypt has to thank their goalkeeper Mohamed Abo Gabal because he was the central actor who led Egypt to force Senegal to play a penalty shootout.

He made a series of brilliant saves that kept the Egyptian goal from conceding and at the same time made Egypt four times forcing the match to be continued into extra time.

Lineup of both teams:

Senegal: Edouard Mendy; Bona Sarr, Kalidou Koulibaly (captain), Abdou Diallo, Saliou Ciss; Idrissa Gana Gueye, Nampalys Mendy, Cheikhou Kouyate (Pape Gueye 66); Ismaila Sarr (Boulaye Dia 77), Famara Diedhiou (Bamba Dieng 77), Sadio Mane

Egypt: Mohamed Abou Gabal; Emam Ashour, Mohamed Abdelmonem, Mahmoud Hamdy, Ahmed Fatouh; Mohamed Elneny, Hamdy Fathy (Mohamed Lasheen 99) Amr Elsoulia (Mahmoud Trezeguet 59); Mohamed Salah (captain), Mostafa Mohamed (Marwan Hamdy 59), Omar Marmoush (Ahmed 'Zizo' Sayed 59)