OPINION: Senegal were worthy winners of a woeful Afcon final
Sadio Mane had the final say as Egypt's defensive tactics finally backfired.
Sadio Mane celebrates after scoring the winning penalty against Egypt. Picture: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix.
If it wasn’t exactly the most inspiring final of an Africa Cup of Nations, the victorious team, Senegal, were at least the most deserving.
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Aliou Cisse’s side did more than Egypt in the knockout stages to assert their authority on this competition. While the Pharaohs’ tactics were effective, Carlos Queiroz’ side were hardly an inspiration to lovers of flair in the beautiful game.
The rolling around of players on the floor in search of an Oscar in their semifinal win over Cameroon was particularly irritating, and in the end dragging another match into a penalty shootout in the final backfired on the North Africans.
Even Abou Gabal’s heroics between the poles could not save Egypt this time around.
It was refreshing, too, to see a new winner of the Africa Cup of Nations, Senegal finally triumphing after two failures at the last hurdle in 2002 and 2019.
Sadio Mane’s mini-battle with Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah was probably the most interesting aspect of this dull final. It was certainly the most hyped contest beforehand.
Salah appeared to get the upper hand early on when he whispered to Gabal, presumably about which way Mane was going to send an early penalty. Mane tried to intervene, pointing his arm in the direction he ultimately did not send the spot kick. Whether Gabal went with Salah or not, he guessed correctly and made the save.
Salah battled to get into the game, but did have one snap shot that Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy acrobatically tipped away at his near post. Interestingly, Salah had beaten Mendy at his near post recently in an English Premieer League game against Chelsea, so maybe Mendy anticipated the shot direction this time around.
Mane, of course, would get the last laugh, blasting home the final spot kick in the shootout to win the trophy for Senegal. It was a ferocious effort that gave Gabal no chance, while Salah was left stranded, as Egypt’s final penalty- taker, without a penalty to take.
There was criticism of the decision to make Salah the final man in the shootout, but so was Mane for Senegal, and it was Salah who had applied the coup de grace from exactly that position in the last-16 win over Ivory Coast.
It’s too easy to use hindsight to provide that kind of insight, and as Mane consoled Salah at the final whistle, any criticism of Egypt should rather have turned to the tactics deployed that didn’t really make best use of the man who is arguably currently the best attacking player in the world.
Queiroz can point to the fact that he got the team to the final, and to within a whisker of the trophy, but just two goals in the knockout phases is a poor return by anyone’s standards.
A word, finally, for the only South African between the lines in the final (Zakhele Siwela was just on the other side as assistant referee), referee Victor Gomes, who correctly awarded the early penalty, though it was almost impossible not to.
He indulged in some entertaining banter with Salah, where at one stage he seemed to offer him his yellow cards and whistle, as if to say “if you think you can do a better job….”
Gomes’ qualities as a referee can be questioned at times, but here, he almost provided more entertainment, it has to said, than this final.
