Analysis by the Guardian
Liverpool forward will face his former teammate Sadio Mané in Afcon semi against Senegal after arguably the Pharaohs’ best performance since 2008
it is a long time since Egypt had a night this good. There have been two World Cup qualifications since their golden age of three successive Cups of Nations came to an end in 2010, and they’ve got to the finals of two Cups of Nations since, but this had a different feel to the knockout phases in 2017 or 2021 (played in 2022). This wasn’t grinding through, doing just enough (across the knockouts in 2017 and 2021, Egypt won one game without needing extra time or penalties; a grim 1-0 against Morocco in the 2017 quarter-final).
It was taking on one of the giants of African football and beating them well. A 3-2 victory over Côte d’Ivoire was probably Egypt’s best single performance since they beat the same opposition 4-1 in the semi-finals of Ghana 2008.
That game in Kumasi was always going to cast its shadow over this quarter-final. Saturday’s coaches were on opposite sides when Egypt beat Côte d’Ivoire on penalties in the 2006 final in Cairo – Hossam Hassan as a 39-year-old squad captain and unused sub and Émerse Faé in the centre of midfield – but it was the semi-final two years later this game most resembled. The 4-1 hurt Côte d’Ivoire far more than the final had, the image of a bewildered Kolo Touré running away from Amr Zaki as he scored Egypt’s third a symbol of the Pharaohs’ superiority that night. Within four minutes on Saturday, Odilon Kossounou had got in a similar mess, legs tangled as Omar Marmoush sped by him to put Egypt ahead.
nd because all national teams, to some extent, play amid memory and tradition, the consequence of Saturday’s win is a semi-final on Wednesday that will evoke more recent history: Egypt against Senegal, Mohamed Salah against his former Liverpool teammate Sadio Mané, just as it was in the final in Yaoundé in February 2022, when Mané scored the winning penalty before Salah had even got to take his, and just as it was a month later in the World Cup qualifying playoff when Salah, having learned the dangers of being listed to take the fifth penalty, took the first, missed and Mané again scored the decisive kick.
But this was a hugely significant performance beyond the echoes of history. Egypt had struggled to this point.
Salah scored on Monday to help Egypt progress to the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations
