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TotalEnergiesAFCON2021: And the Champion is Senegal !

After a daring 0-0 draw, Senegal’s Lions of Teranga takes over Egypt’s Pharaohs in Cameroon’s Olembe Stadium earlier. The winning country took over despite the draw due to the 4-2 penalties split following their crowning moment. Now it’s Senegal who is the grand champion of the Afcon 2021.

Following the win, Mane set foot to be the best player of the match over Salah and Gabazki, who was named Man of the Match afterward. Keeping his temper and making sure they play the way they should is what helped Mane get the spot as well as give a win for their team. He scored three times and gave two assists throughout the match.

The win also threw social media to a loaded time, as countless tweets regarding the match surfaced. For one, the netizens think that Senegal deserved to win after so many years of pursuing the championship after a fighting chance only. They reached finals but still didn’t manage to take it over their rival.

At the same time, fans believe that for Egypt, the goalkeeper deserved more recognition even though they came from the losing team. People are expressing how his potential is limitless, but that he could join a different football club and he would do so much better.

The Africa Cup of Nations, also known as Afcon, is a competition that brings all African Nations together to compete against each other in a football competition. As the most prestigious football competition in the whole continent, Afcon brings the best people from the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF), which is similar to FIFA but has governance all around Africa only.

The Afcon has a long history of providing a platform for all African football players to showcase their skills and meet equally competitive players from all around the continent. This has been an important tradition because Africa is one continent that does not have a lot of resources to provide for itself, but still, they’re as equally good as other players from around the world. The leading teams who made it to the finals this year are Egypt and Senegal.

Senegal’s status in the field

Senegal doesn’t have much to brag about in terms of the Afcon because it’s not always that Senegal reaches such a high place, even so winning the whole tournament. For one, so many countries like Egypt, Ghana, and Cameroon were able to overshadow Senegal easily.

From 2002 to 2020, they have had only two finalists positions, the first one batling out with Cameroon who won the Quater Finals in AFCON 2017, and the second one battling out the championship with Algeria in Egypt 2019, which they also didn’t manage to win against.

But even though that is the case for Senegal, the country has been growing extremely rapidly over the past years.

Fans all over Africa feel so happy for Senegal, as the team has been showing some kind of rising talent sand stars to show to the next coming Afcons. Those who stuck around supporting Senegal feel the most joyous, saying that there really is more to the country than the hindrances it faced before.

Egypt’s warning

Having Senegal qualify to the World Cup, Egypt is taking a step forward in giving a warning that the Pharaohs don’t step down to any of their opponents. They said that they will get stronger and not let anything hinder them from getting the cup and taking over the other teams they batter against.

They added that they don’t just take a loss for what it is, but see it as a point for improvement, which pushes them to be greater than their past defeat. They have more matches to come, and they only want nothing but to win their matches.

Diyaa El-Sayed, Egypt Pharaohs’ assistant coach, believed that Egypt could and was to easily go back to what they need,ed which is to win the Afcon again since they've been on a streak except for this time.

In the end, no matter how bitter they take the runner-up position, Egypt believes that the finals they had with Senegal are one that was still successful for them.

The assistant coach also mentioned that the team will be looking forward to assessing their weaknesses as a team which makes up for the setbacks they had throughout the round.

Moreover, though it is something that brings the pride of their players down, it’s something that El-Sayed believes to be important if the team wants to pick itself up again.