Some day, perhaps, Mohamed Salah will get the better of Sadio Mané in a major game, but not on Wednesday, not in the Africa Cup of Nations semi-final. When Senegal beat Egypt in a shootout in the 2021 Afcon final, Mané scored the winning penalty before Salah had the chance to take his. In the shootout in the qualifying playoff for the 2022 World Cup, Salah missed his effort and Mané scored the winning penalty. This time it didn’t get to penalties, but Mané was still the matchwinner, thrashing in the only goal with 12 minutes remaining.
Semi-finals, notoriously, are not for the playing but the winning, but this was among the worst of its type. There were fouls, there was grappling, there was time-wasting, there was the feigning of injury, there were countless attempts to influence the referee, there were numerous explosions of faux outrage, there was a lot of sideways passing, and there was very little in terms of imagination or flair or quality. As a spectacle it was awful; as an occasion it held the attention only because the stakes were so high.
But Senegal will not care, and nor should they. Faced with an Egypt side who sat three central defenders deep, protected by two deep-lying midfielders, and showed almost no attacking ambition, they had two-thirds of the ball but struggled to create clear chances.
