Africa’s two best players will square off in Sunday’s final but, before this tournament’s marketing team gets too excited about a clash between
Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané, it would be best to expect a slow burner.
Egypt revel in those, and showed it again here. They survived a series of first-half scares against Cameroon, who were enthusiastic but blunt, and then stretched proceedings to their elastic limit. Once penalties loomed there was a sense everyone bar the noisy 900 fans who had flown from Cairo might as well head home: Egypt simply do not lose them and, for the sixth shootout running, showed cool heads while others wilted.
Salah was not even required to step up for the deciding kick, as he had in the quarter-final against Ivory Coast, because Cameroon had already missed three. A straight run-up by Harold Moukoudi and a short one from James Léa Siliki both boded ill, and so it proved when Mohamed Abou Gabal saved two tame efforts. The final penalty was lifted wide by Clinton N’Jie; Egypt had hung in there and profited from their opponents’ yips, exacting some revenge for their defeat in the 2017 Cup of Nations final.