Mane the hero as Senegal wins first AFCON

 

Senegal's Mane sealed the win for the Teranga Lions after a goalless 120 minutes against Egypt.

Yesterday, Senegal became African champions for the first time in their history after their penalty shootout win against Egypt in Yaoundé.

Egypt reached the final of the competition after beating hosts Cameroon 3-1 in the semi-final to book a spot in the final against Senegal. 

While the Teranga Lions defeated Burkina Faso 3-1 to reach their second consecutive final.

This was Senegal's third AFCON final as they kept searching for their first-ever AFCON title, while Egypt were hoping to win their first trophy since 2010 and their eighth overall.

Egypt's coach, Carlos Queiroz was absent from the touchline after his sending off against Cameroon, but he communicated with his staff from the stands via Walkie Talkie.

Senegal looked dangerous from the blast of the whistle, and immediately won a penalty in the third minute after Abdelmonem brought down Ciss inside the box.

Mane missed the resulting penalty as his attempt was saved by Abou-Gabal.

The penalty miss did not bring the spirits of the Senegalese, as they continued to have the upper hand in the opening 15 minutes.

Egypt had two chances, but it was Senegal who attacked the most in the first half.

After the half-time break, Senegal were straight back on the attack, and Abou-Gabal had to be sharp in making some saves

Egypt's best chance fell to Marwan Hamdi who had the chance to kill off the tie but was put off by Abdou Diallo and his effort went wide.

The rest of the second half saw Senegal keeping the ball, but without creating clear-cut chances.

The game went into extra time, Egypt's 4th of the competition.

The extra-time started with An immediate chance for Senegal as Mane put Dieng through on goal, but he was denied by Abou-Gabal.

Dieng had another crack on goal from 30 yards out, but as usual, Abou-Gabal denied him

Marwan Hamdi had the last chance of the game as he struck from inside the box, but it was straight at Mendy, who palmed it over.

The game went into penalty shootouts, the third time for the Egyptian in the tournament, but this time it didn’t come with a happy ending.

While Bouna Sarr missed for Senegal, both Mohamed Abdelmonem and Mohanad Lashin missed for the Pharaohs for Sadio Mane to score the final winning penalty and redeem himself for the earlier miss.

Senegal won 4-2 on Penalties.