Egypt beats Burkina Faso to reach African Cup final

Cameroon and Ghana meet in Franceville in the second semi-final on Thursday.

He saved Bertrand Traore’s effort from the spot in the deciding penalty shootout to secure victory.

The game finished 1-1 after extra time, with Mohamed Salah giving Egypt a 66th-minute lead and Aristide Bance equalizing for Burkina Faso seven minutes later.

Egypt, as the continent’s most successful team, failed to qualify between 2012-15. While the versatile Argentine tactician, Hector Cuper will be hoping to win his first AFCON title with Egypt, his counterpart, Hugo Bross, the Belgian coach will plot the fall of the Pharaohs for Cameroon’s fifth AFCON title.

If the result goes as they wish then that will not overly bother the throng who, inevitably, will gather at the Beach Club on Sunday night to see whether Cameroon can conjure the unexpected again.

Prejuce Nakoulma fired Burkina Faso’s first chance wide from a long way out, and Alain Traore could only guide his free-kick into the waiting arms of Richard Ofori.

Egyptian players ran to hug el-Hadary as Traore put his hands on his head and then turned his back and kicked the grass.

If the third-place playoff occupies a somewhat unusual position in modern footbal – arguably the game no team wants to play in – it has become all too familiar territory for Ghana. We missed the penalty.

As for Grant and Ghana the Cup of Nations jinx endures.

And the answer to both of those questions is Burkina Faso, so by a tentative process of elimination, they have to be the bet at around [3.7].

However, Bance, who was left unmarked in the box, equalised seven minutes later as he chested down Charles Kabore’s cross and beat El-Hadary. Egypt has only allowed one goal in their five matches, so far. The 28-year-old midfielder, who plays his club football at Turkish club Kayserispor, curled a free kick over Ghana’s wall for the game’s only goal.

Egypt had squandered their opening shot and looked to be on their way out of the top African tournament.