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2021 African Cup of Nations: Final Preview

2021 African Cup of Nations

(Photo by Xinhua/Sipa USA)

2021 African Cup of Nations
(Photo by Xinhua/Sipa USA)

2021 African Cup of Nations: Final Preview

After nearly a month of action, the 2021 African Cup of Nations has reached the final. Senegal and Egypt will take center stage on Sunday, February 6th, when they battle it out for the right to call themselves Champions of Africa. The match will take place at 2:00 PM ET from the Olembe Stadium in the capital city of Cameroon, Yaoundé. The trip to the Olembe Stadium will be the first for Senegal and second for Egypt who played their semifinal match in the stadium.

In the semifinals, there were two completely different matches. Senegal beat Burkina Faso 3-1 with goals from a pair of Ligue 1 players Abdou Diallo of PSG and Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Dieng of Marseille before Liverpool’s Sadio Mane put the game out of reach. Mane’s goal came following an 80th-minute goal from Ibrahim Blati Touré that brought Burkina Faso back within one goal. The goal from Touré was only the second goal allowed by Senegal in the 2021 African Cup of Nations.

With the win over Burkina Faso, Senegal advanced to their third African Cup of Nations final and the second in a row. However, they are still looking for their first title at the 2021 African Cup of Nations following a 1-0 loss against Algeria in the 2019 final and a penalty shootout loss to Cameroon at the 2002 tournament. Egypt on the other hand will be looking for their record stretching eighth title. It will be their second final in three editions after being defeated by Cameroon 2-1 in the 2017 final.

Egypt in their semifinal needed penalties for the second time in the tournament to beat hosts Cameroon 3-1 on penalties after 120 scoreless minutes. Their first penalty win came in the Round of 16 against Ivory Coast. All three of Egypt’s knockout matches have needed extra time with their quarterfinal against Morocco finishing 2-1 after extra time.

It will be interesting to see how the fitness of Egypt will be compared to that of Senegal since the latter has seamlessly walked through the knockout stage with comfortable wins over Cape Verde in the Round of 16, Equatorial Guinea in the quarterfinals, and then Burkina Faso in the semifinals. This very good run of matches came after Senegal just won their group by a single point.

It will be a battle of teams led by Liverpool stars, with Mohamed Salah leading Egypt and Sadio Mane leading Senegal. So far throughout the tournament, Salah has been The Pharaohs’ top scorer with two goals, while Mane has three goals for The Lions of Teranga. Two of Mane’s three goals have come in the knockout rounds and the dangerous forward has added two assists as well.

Senegal has still yet to lose a match in the 2021 African Cup of Nations. The key to this has been their superb defense that is allowing the second-fewest shots per game only trailing Nigeria, the only team to beat Egypt in the tournament. Thanks to the goaltending of Chelsea’s Édouard Mendy and a strong backline controlled by Napoli center back Kalidou Koulibaly The Lions of Teranga have managed four clean sheets. Meanwhile, Egypt’s only loss came in a 1-0 defeat to Nigeria in their opening game.

Another storyline for Egypt will be surrounding their manager as they will be without Carlos Queiroz. The Egyptian manager was shown a red card late in regulation against Cameroon and is suspended for the 2021 African Cup of Nations final. Along with Queiroz Egypt will be without their assistant manager as well since Roger de Sa is currently serving a four-match suspension following an incident in Egypt’s quarterfinal match with Morocco.

This is the first time Egypt and Senegal have played each other since 2014 when they played twice in qualification for the 2015 African Cup of Nations. Both times Senegal won while holding Egypt scoreless with a 2-0 win in Senegal and a 1-0 win in Egypt. The final of the 2021 African Cup of Nations will be the first of three consecutive matches between the two as they play each other in the third round of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup with the winner advancing to the World Cup and the loser missing out.

Key Players

It is hard for any player to be as key as Salah and Mane will be for their teams. The Liverpool stars have been outstanding for their teams in the 2021 African Cup of Nations, but only one will have bragging rights when they get back to England. For Egypt Salah has been an essential part of the team. He scored the final penalty to knock out Ivory Coast and scored the equalizer against Morocco. Salah is currently the second-highest goalscorer in Egyptian history with 47 goals for The Pharaohs only trailing Hossam Hassan’s 68 goals. Salah will be looking to redeem himself after only scoring twice in the 2019 tournament where Egypt were hosts and were shockingly knocked out in the Round of 16. 

Mane has by far been Senegal’s best player. He leads the team in goals (3), assists (2), and shots on target (6) in this tournament. For Egypt to win they will need to slow down Mane which is much easier said than done. The Senegal forward is tied for the most goals in Senegalese history with Henri Camara with 29. A goal on Sunday could see Mane become his country’s greatest all-time goalscorer.

Prediction

This is the final I predicted in my pre-tournament preview and now that it is here I am going to stick with my original pick of Senegal to win. Senegal has looked incredible this tournament, only Cameroon have looked as good minus the penalty shootout against Egypt. Both Salah and Mane will score, but in the end, The Lions of Teranga will hoist the trophy for the first time winning the 2021 African Cup of Nations 2-1.

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