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\nSenegal’s forward Sadio Mane celebrates his goal<\/p>\n
Yassine Bounou saved two penalties and Youssef En-Nesyri netted the decisive spot kick as hosts Morocco secured \u2060a 4-2 shootout victory over Nigeria following their 0-0 draw in a tense Africa Cup of Nations semi-final in Rabat.<\/p>\n
Morocco, seeking their first continental title in 50 years, will face 2021 winners Senegal in Sunday’s decider in Rabat, while Nigeria take on Egypt in the third-place playoff a day before.<\/p>\n
The 120 minutes before the shootout had few clear-cut chances for either side, but it was Morocco who created the greater opportunities, though they were denied by some fine saves from Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali.<\/p>\n
Nigeria had the best scoring record in the competition coming into the semi-final, but offered very little going forward in a limp display.<\/p>\n
And when Samuel Chukwueze and Bruno Onyemaechi saw their tame penalties saved in the shootout, they were left to reflect on a performance that showed little ambition.<\/p>\n
Morocco were workmanlike and efficient as they have been all through the competition, even if they are still to find their best form.<\/p>\n
They are on the brink of a \u2060first continental crown since 1976, but their biggest challenge awaits in an impressive Senegal side who beat Egypt 1-0 thanks to Sadio Mane\u2019s winner in the \u2060first semi-final in Tangier earlier on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The first half hour in Rabat was devoid of goalmouth chances until Achraf Hakimi\u2019s corner was headed into the path of Ayoub El Kaabi \u2060five yards from goal.<\/p>\n
But \u2060he was caught in two minds whether to turn and shoot or try an overhead kick, and in the end did neither as the chance was lost.<\/p>\n
Morocco’s Ismael Saibari showed excellent skill to work a shooting chance but Nwabali was equal to \u2060his effort.<\/p>\n
He was by far the busier keeper in the game, but Morocco were mostly reduced to long-range efforts that proved comfortable enough to save.<\/p>\n
Nigeria had few opportunities and when talisman Victor Osimhen did receive a pass in the box, his touch was poor and the rare chance was lost.<\/p>\n
Nayef Aguerd\u2019s header from a corner hit the outside of the post as the hosts went close, but penalties seemed inevitable well before the 120 minutes were up.<\/p>\n
And following Bounou\u2019s saves, En-Nesyri struck the decisive spot-kick to send his side \u2060into their first final since a 2004 loss to Tunisia.<\/p>\n
\nSenegal’s forward Sadio Mane celebrates his goal<\/p>\n
Sadio Mane got the better of ex-Liverpool team-mate Mohamed Salah after his winner fired Senegal into the Africa Cup of Nations final with a 1-0 victory over Egypt.<\/p>\n
This was the first meeting between the nations since three battles in 2022, which included Senegal’s penalty shoot-out success over Egypt to claim this tournament four years ago.<\/p>\n
Salah had scored four times prior to this last-four clash but endured a frustrating evening at Stade Ibn-Batouta, with his team only able to produce three shots to ensure his wait for a continental title extends.<\/p>\n
Senegal quickly took control but had to wait until 12 minutes from time for Mane to make his mark.<\/p>\n
After Lamine Camera had a shot blocked, the ball ricocheted to Mane and he chested down before rifling into the bottom corner to spark jubilant celebrations.<\/p>\n
Egypt pushed for a late leveller and Omar Marmoush tested Edouard Mendy in stoppage-time but Senegal held on to book a place in Sunday\u2019s final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yassine Bounou saved two penalties and Youssef En-Nesyri netted the decisive spot kick as hosts Morocco secured \u2060a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-413802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}