Someday, Mohamed Salah might prevail over Sadio Mané in a significant match, but it wasn’t on Wednesday during the Africa Cup of Nations semi-final. When Senegal faced Egypt in a shootout in the 2021 Afcon final, Mané clinched the victory with the decisive penalty before Salah could step up. In the penalty shootout during the 2022 World Cup qualifying playoff, Salah missed, and Mané scored the winner. This time, the match didn’t reach a penalty shootout, but Mané still emerged as the hero, scoring the sole goal with 12 minutes left.
Semi-finals are infamously about winning rather than playing, yet this match was particularly poor in quality. It was filled with fouls, grappling, time-wasting, injury feigning, attempts to sway the referee, bursts of false outrage, excessive lateral passing, and lacked creativity, flair, or excellence. As entertainment, it fell short, maintaining interest only due to the high stakes involved.
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- Source: SCCGManagement.com