This morning, the final of the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations ended at the Olembe Stadium in Yaoundé, and as the end of the African Cup of Nations with chaotic organization, tight schedule and continuous events, the inertia of the "final without a name" is still as promised. Egypt, which was all overtime in the knockout rounds, was finally not favored by Lady Luck for the fourth time, and Mane, who missed a penalty in regular time and hit a penalty spot for the fifth time, also experienced a reversal from great compassion to great joy. However, this contest of individual heroism vs. the most luxurious returnees is only the first of the three battles, and on March 25, the two teams that have already been killed in the final will be decided in the final two legs of the World Preliminary Round africa, and the fight will be fought to the end again for a Qatar ticket.
Although salah, who has won the Champions League and the Premier League laurels successively, has been considered a winner in life, in the national team, the fate of the "pharaoh" millennium is still continuing. In 2017, The Egyptian team under Cooper also crossed the road to the final, but faced Cameroon, where many main players refused to participate, the egyptian team that won the championship was still defeated. Now, Salah is once again in a position closer to the championship. From the group stage so far, the Egyptian captain, who was only replaced in the last minute of overtime against Morocco, has an iron man's attendance, but in the highly targeted combination of opponents, the "pharaoh" who is mighty in Liverpool has dropped to 2 shots per game, and the most eye-catching moment of the final is to cover his mouth and whisper next to goalkeeper Abu Gabale, who understands and saves Mane's penalty.
However, Salah was destined to be a penalty and a penalty – Egypt advanced to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, stemming from Salah's penalty against Congo on October 8, 2017, but this time, Egypt's No. 10, who was scheduled to appear for the fifth time in the penalty shootout, had not even waited for his turn to watch his opponent rush into the stadium to celebrate the coronation. Admittedly, the domestic league players took the first four rounds of penalties, which was an overly risky decision, but from the small note that Abu Gabale has repeatedly looked back, to the legendary goalkeeper Hadari sitting in the coach's seat, Queiroz's team is obviously ready to shoot penalties each other. But the final outcome is also a lament. Former Liverpool captain Carragher, whose palms are fleshy, is particularly sympathetic to the unlucky Salah: "That's why you can never put the best penalty shooter in 5th place. Salah didn't even get a chance to take a penalty for Egypt in the penalty shootout, which is crazy. This is reminiscent of Cristiano Ronaldo when Portugal played against Spain many years ago. ”
Reusing homegrown players was also a particularly helpless choice when Queiroz took office last September. When the team returned to the World Cup family in 2018, more than half of The 23 under Cooper's command were returnees, of which the Two Leagues in England became the source of The Egyptian international: outside Salah, Jabour (West Bromwich), Elmer Hammadi (Aston Villa), Morsi (Wigan), Hegazi (West Bromwich Albion), Sobsi (Stoke City) and Naini (Arsenal), accounting for almost half of the team's starting points. But at present, in the Standing Squad of the Egyptian team, there are only 3 returnees in the five major leagues, Salah, Naini and Malmouth, who have grown up quite similarly, either after the emergence of the Egyptian league at a young age, they have been taken by the European small nations league, or they have grown up in the youth training system of other countries and cut off the Egyptian Super League early. The Egyptian team, which is worth a total of 165 million euros, has been thrown away by Senegal, Algeria, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire and other countries, considering that Salah's personal value is close to 130 million euros, and the remaining players are worth gold, which can be imagined.
Compared with the Victory and Defeat of the Egyptian team almost all tied to Salah, Senegal, which has the most luxurious lineup of this year, although it has not crushed all the way to the championship as expected by the outside world, it is enough to crown the highest honor of African football for the first time in history, which is enough to make the help of many famous players worth the trip. A stark contrast is that in the penalty shootout, when Egypt can only rely on guns and cannons, Senegal's five players are from Napoli, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Marseille and Liverpool, these 5 teams are European regulars, in terms of vision and experience, Senegal not only out of Egypt's most players at least one grade, but also more than 20 years ago when they reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup in history. After all, At that time, Senegal's number one star, Diouf, was still playing for Lens in Ligue 1, and only moved to Liverpool after the World Cup, and now Mane has already completed a hundred goals in Liverpool, almost the first person in Senegalese football history.
It is not difficult to explain why after Mane lost the penalty sinkhole at the beginning, it is still Senegal that firmly occupies the initiative of the game, and the "Tranga Lion" who shoots twice as well as Egypt in the whole game, if it is not met with the Egyptian goalkeeper Abu Gabale, who has almost opened, does not have to wait for the final penalty shootout. However, even in this link that attaches great importance to luck, the super error-correcting Mendy still perfectly interprets what is the best goalkeeper of the African Cup, and the Blues No. 16, who won the title for the fourth time in 10 months, became the first in history to complete a clean sheet in both the Champions League final and the African Cup final. Kepa just saved a penalty in the FA Cup? Then I'll pounce on both!
Four years ago in Russia, Senegal and Egypt, which both advanced to the World Cup in Russia, performed unsatisfactorily in the main match: the former scored 4 points in the first two games, and was pierced by Mina in the final round, only because the fair play index (more yellow cards) was lower than the Japanese team and regretted to be out; while the Egyptian team was seriously injured in salah's Champions League final, lost all three games in the group stage, and even bullied by the Saudi team. After 4 years, Mane and Salah, who will both celebrate their 30th birthday this year, although they embraced each other affectionately after the Final of the African Cup, but a month and a half later, the two will meet again - the third round of the World Preliminary Round in Africa, Senegal and Egypt meet in a narrow road, this game is destined to be a laughing, a crying squid game, but also in a more tragic and more heartfelt way. (Supine Braces/Yang Jian)