- It’s Sadio Mane Vs Mo Salah on Sunday
BY VICTOR OSOWOCHI – As another opportunity to win their first-ever Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title beckons again on Sunday, the million dollars poser from many football pundits is “Can Teranga Lions of Senegal make hay by beating the Pharaohs of Egypt in this finals?”
In this history beckoning finals, the talking point on who will be crowned continental kings has narrowed down to a battle between Liverpool’s exciting striking partners, Mohamed Salah of Egypt and Sadio Mane of Senegal.
The Senegalese are surely the most high-profile African nation never to win the continental title, and will this be the year they finally get over the line and clinch the biggest prize in the continental game?
Head Coach Aliou Cisse certainly believes so, claiming that the team’s mental strength means they’ve never been as close to winning the big one before.
The Teranga Lions became the first team to reach this year’s final on Wednesday when they saw off Burkina Faso 3-1 at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo, Yaounde to reach Sunday’s showpiece.
However, they have an uphill task at hand and must go past seventh-time champions, the Pharaohs of Egypt, who broke the hearts of hosts nation Cameroon on Thursday with their 3-1 penalty triumph over the Indomitable Lions.
In a match that had Egypt head coach, Carlos Queiroz slamming AFCON officials after receiving a red card, the Cameroonians were sent crashing out of the tournament on losing on penalties to Egypt following a goalless 120 minutes of action.
Among the biggest talking points was Queiroz being sent to the stands after remonstrating with head referee Bakary Gassama late in the second half of normal time, and he vented his fury to reporters post-match.
Away from Queiroz’s jabs, the Pharaohs will be riding on the back of their night of devastation and shattered hopes in Cameroon to attempt at pocketing their eighth continental title battling the Teranga Lions inside the Olembe Stadium in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon
For the Senegalese, it is a familiar road and they are preparing for their third final after 2002 and 2019 disastrous outings. In 2002, the Golden Generation that would go on to reach the quarter-final of the World Cup later that year advanced to face Cameroon in the final where, with current head coach Cisse missing the decisive penalty, they were dispatched in the shootout.
Seventeen (17) years later, at the last Nations Cup hosted by Egypt in 2019, the Teranga Lions progressed to meet Desert Warriors of Algeria in the final, only to fall behind to an early Baghdad Bounedjah goal and never recovered.
In returning to the final this time around, they become the first team since Egypt in 2010 to reach back-to-back finals, yet while that iconic Pharaohs side had three AFCON titles to show for their sustained excellence, the West Africans are yet to win anything in this fine cycle.
Of course, Cisse took them back to the World Cup in 2018, as well as the two Nations Cup finals, while he has also overseen progress from Senegal’s ranking of 64th in the world when he took over to 20th today.
Coach Aliou Cisse of Senegal
The former Birmingham City and Portsmouth man could have been forgiven for approaching Sunday’s meeting with apprehension, having been present for both of the Lions’ failures to date, and knowing better than most the anguish of Senegal’s near misses.
Yet there’s no such hesitancy about Cisse as he approaches another career-defining occasion, with the coach’s confidence in the mental strength and unity of his team underpinning his belief that this will be their year.
“I was a footballer and the only thing that helped me or made me feel better was to win, so I want this mentality in my team, they’re getting there. [Their mentality] is very good, when they don’t score, they’re annoyed, when they don’t win, they’re annoyed, that’s good.
“If there’s no difference for you between winning and losing, you’re not a competitor. My team wants to win and to win, we must play, we’re aware of this.”
Progress to date, however, means precious little if the Teranga Lions do not bring home the title and this is a reality that Cisse knows only too well.
According to him; “Even though we haven’t won the Nations Cup, you can’t talk about African football today without talking about Senegal”, adding; “We’ve never been as close to this cup, but we just need to bring it home, it’ll be a big battle.”
“Of course, we want to bring the title home, it’s not only today that we’re feeling this. But we’ll approach it without pressure”, the man with the legendary braided hair assured. – With Goal.com reports
