Sadio Mane consoles Mo Salah as Senegal sink Egypt to reach AFCON final

Mané scored the decisive goal in the 78th minute of their semifinal tie at Tangier Grand Stadium on Wednesday, as the Senegalese earned a deserved victory and passage to the title decider on Sunday. 

Mané paid tribute to Salah and the Pharaohs, who they also defeated in the 2021 AFCON final. 

"[I'd like] to pay tribute to Egypt, of course, and as I always said, Egypt, for me, is the best-ever team in Africa and today they showed it again," said Mane.

"Wow, what a team, it was not easy for us and we expected that because it's Africa Cup and we struggled, but we kept patient.

"Facing these great players, especially Mo Salah – one of the best players in the world, and of course he's always giving his best for the team, it's unfortunate for him today as well.

"But I just want to say this is part of football and yeah, just get up and keep fighting for your dream because we know I can't be here to talk about Egypt otherwise I won't sleep all night, but big respect for this team and I wish them the best of luck."

READ: Morocco edge Nigeria on penalties to reach AFCON final

The 2021 continental champions are into their fourth AFCON final – and third of the last four editions, and will face hosts Morocco at Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat. 

This result also marked Senegal’s fifth victory over Egypt in the last six meetings between the two continental heavyweights, and the Al-Nassr forward said patience and game management were key to Senegal’s approach. 

"Today was not an easy game but we expected that and, as I said, we had been patient and we knew that any kind of mistake we would be punished," he added.

"So we tried from the beginning to the end to be compact and to press as soon as we lose the ball to put them under big pressure, and not to lose easy balls because they have one of the best players in the world [Salah], Marmoush and more.

"So we didn't give them a chance to punish us and we were able to do it very well, and I think we created many chances and at the end of the day we scored the only goal, so I will say we deserved to win."