Senegal vs Egypt LIVE: Afcon final team news and line-ups as Mohamed Salah faces Sadio Mane

Follow live updates from the Africa Cup of Nations final as Senegal face Egypt to decide what has been a thrilling tournament in Cameroon. After four weeks of competition, the final sees the continent’s two best players in Senegal’s Sadio Mane and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah compete for a first international honour, with both star forwards having played integral roles in their respective nation’s run to the final.

Senegal, the tournament favourites, are aiming to win the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time after they lost in the final to Algeria in 2019. They defeated Burkina Faso 3-1 in the semi-finals and after a slow start, strength in depth has proved key for Aliou Cisse’s side, with goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, defender Kalidou Koulibaly and midfielder Idrissa Gueye all helping to form a formidable starting eleven.

Egypt, meanwhile, have prevailed through two penalty shoot-outs during the knockout stages. Under veteran coach Carlos Queiroz, Egypt knocked out Ivory Coast and hosts Cameroon on spot kicks, either side of a extra-time victory over Morocco. While Salah is their talisman, the Pharaohs have frustrated their opponents thanks to their defensive shape and organisation, and are aiming to win the title for a record eighth time. Follow all the latest updates from the final below:

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AFCON 2022: Jurgen Klopp on watching Mane and Salah

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was asked whether he will be watching tonight’s Afcon final and what it will be like to see his two star players, Sadio Mane and Mo Salah, play against each other. He said:

It will be exciting. Now it’s obviously not so easy because we have to watch the game and one will be definitely really happy after it, and the other one much less so. But both have a good chance to achieve something really big.

“It’s difficult obviously to get that far in a tournament, the pressure – they are the superstars so the pressure they had on their shoulders was massive.

“And how they dealt with it, I’m really proud of them, to be honest, and now two of them are in the final and yeah, we will watch it definitely.”

AFCON 2022: Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah compared ahead of Africa Cup of Nations final

Liverpool duo Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah will go head-to-head in Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations final.

They have an incredible record playing together for the Reds but will be on opposite sides as Senegal take on Egypt in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde.

Here, we take a look at how the two strikers compare:

Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah compared ahead of Africa Cup of Nations final

The Liverpool duo will be on opposite sides as Senegal take on Egypt in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde

AFCON 2022: Sadio Mane believes Senegal’s experience will give them the edge against Egypt

Sadio Mane feels Senegal’s experience will give them the edge against Egypt as he goes head to head with Liverpool team-mate Mohamed Salah in the Africa Cup of Nations final.

Mane will lead favourites Senegal in Sunday’s showpiece against the Pharaohs, for whom Salah has starred in the Cameroon-staged tournament.

Senegal have never won the tournament but return to the final for the second successive time having lost to Algeria in 2019.

Sadio Mane believes Senegal’s experience will give them the edge against Egypt

The Indomitable Lions reached the final in 2019 but have never won the Africa Cup of Nations

AFCON 2022: Mo Salah on winning

Egypt’s Mohamed Salah believes his team are capable of winning the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 12 years and hopes to achieve a personal goal of winning a big tournament for his country. Salah said:

I always say I would love to win something with my country. Every time I come to the national team I’m proud to wear the shirt, I give my best to the team. Team awards always come first.

“Hopefully we can do something this time. We do our best to win it; we have a good coach, we have a good team, we have a very good group and they played for the national team for 10 or 11 years now.

“I know we have a very good team. We give our best and hopefully we win it.” 

AFCON 2022: Sadio Mane on experience

Senegal’s Sadio Mane says that the experience of losing the 2019 Afcon final will be a ‘good asset’ for his team as they look to win the tournament for the very first time. He feels as though the squad is in a good place and has the ability to defeat seven-time champions Egypt tonight saying:

Experience is a good asset. I think that has always been the case since the start of this tournament. We suffered so much with a lot of COVID cases and several injuries too.

“We had a very difficult time but with our experience we kept calm until we recovered the whole group. We played a final last time, so we have experience and we will try to win this trophy.”

AFCON 2022: Senegal vs Egypt team changes

Both managers make just one change to their starting XIs from the teams that played their respective semi-finals

Aliou Cisse brings Ismaila Sarr into the line-up in place of Bamba Dieng and Carlos Quieroz replaces Omar Kamal with Emam Ashour.

AFCON 2022: Senegal vs Egypt line-ups

Senegal XI: E. Mendy, B. Sarr, Koullibaly, Diallo, Ciss, N. Mendy, Kouyate, I. Sarr, Gueye, Mane, Diedhou

Egypt XI: Gabaski, Ashour, Abdelmonem, Hamdi El Wensh, El Fotouh. Elneny, Fathy, El Soleya, Salah, Mohamed, Marmoush

AFCON 2022: Sadio Mane vs Mo Salah

The English interest in this match – other than witnessing the exciting nature of African football – is of course seeing Sadio Mane and Mo Salah go head-to-head.

They’re mightily impressive when playing together for Liverpool and have carried that form into this tournament for their respective nations.

Sadio Mane has provided three goals and two assists during the tournament so far, including a goal to wrap up victory in the semi-final on Wednesday.

Mo Salah meanwhile has netted twice and recorded one assist during Egypt’s journey to the final, as well as holding his nerve to convert the clinching penalty in the last-16 shootout.

AFCON 2022: Egypt’s route to the final

Egypt have had a tougher times of things. They lost their opening group game to Nigeria but responded with wins over Guinea-Bissau and Sudan to finished second in Group D.

In the knockouts stages they’ve come up against two big names in Ivory Coast and Cameroon and had to defeat both in penalty shootouts either side of a 2-1 quarter-final win over Morocco – a game that also went to extra-time.

Every one of Egypt’s three knockout games has gone 120 minutes with two resulting in penalty shootouts. They are a tough team to score against and with Senegal’s players likely to be fresher it will a case of defence first when they kick off tonight.

AFCON 2022: Senegal’s route to the final

Senegal have been impressive throughout the competition and may be slightly favoured to win the whole thing when the game kicks off in just over an hour’s time.

Senegal made it through the group stages unbeaten although they only won one of their games (1-0 vs Zimbabwe). They drew the other two 0-0 to top Group B and set up a last-16 tie with Cape Verde. Another win and clean sheet followed as they won 2-0 before consecutive 3-1 victories saw them knockout Equatorial Guinea and Burkina Faso on route to the final.

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