{"id":245537,"date":"2026-01-15T05:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T05:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/245537\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T05:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T05:53:10","slug":"mohamed-salahs-foul-on-sadio-mane-sparks-touchline-fracas-in-heated-afcon-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/245537\/","title":{"rendered":"Mohamed Salah\u2019s foul on Sadio Mane sparks touchline fracas in heated Afcon semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Egypt's<\/p>\n

Egypt’s Mohamed Salah is challenged by Senegal’s Pape Gueye, rear, during the Africa Cup of Nations semifinal in Tangier, Morocco<\/p>\n

The Africa Cup of Nations semi-final between Egypt and Senegal nearly reached boiling point as members of both benches clashed following a foul from Mohamed Salah on former Liverpool team-mate Sadio Mane.<\/p>\n

Egypt captain Salah clipped Mane from behind as he tried to win the ball near the halfway line, with Mohamed Hany then going down under a soft challenge from Habib Diarra moments after the whistle had gone.<\/p>\n

While the players were keen to get on with the game, both tackles incensed members of each nation\u2019s bench, with the challenges prompting a touchline fracas between the respective dugouts that saw several staff and substitutes clashing.<\/p>\n

Both benches cleared in the scuffle, with coaches having to be separated. Diarra and Senegal manager Pape Thiaw attempted to calm things down between the various members of each bench.<\/p>\n

Despite the various incidents of pushing and shoving, everyone on each bench managed to avoid further sanctions, though Senegal midfielder Diarra talked himself into a booking, meaning he will be suspended for Sunday\u2019s final after Senegal won the game 1-0.<\/p>\n

\"Senegal's<\/p>\n

Senegal’s Sadio Mane celebrates after scoring his side’s opening goal during the Africa Cup of Nations semi-final against Egypt<\/p>\n

Mane had the last laugh on his former Liverpool team-mate Salah as his 78th minute goal put Senegal through to Sunday\u2019s final against host nation Morocco, who beat Nigeria on penalties in tonight\u2019s other semi-final.<\/p>\n

Diarra was not the only player to see himself ruled out of the final, with Senegal captain and former Chelsea centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly also suspended for the showpiece event after receiving a yellow card in the 17th minute.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old was perhaps lucky not to be red carded as he scythed down Omar Marmoush on the break, with the Egypt attacker nearly clean through as he was fouled.<\/p>\n

That action was one of the last of the tournament for Koulibaly, with the defender subsequently forced off around five minutes later with what appeared to be a groin injury. He was replaced by Strasbourg defender Mamadou Sarr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Egypt’s Mohamed Salah is challenged by Senegal’s Pape Gueye, rear, during the Africa Cup of Nations semifinal in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,5859,112],"class_list":["post-245537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-liverpool-football-club","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}