Egypt sets up Senegal semifinal at 2025 AFCON as Salah seals win for the Pharaohs

Mohamed Salah scored his fourth of the tournament

Now the record seven-time AFCON champions face the 2021 winners Senegal in Tangier on Wednesday, and revenge might be on their minds for the penalty shootout defeat in that final.

It was Manchester City forward Omar Marmoush who opened the scoring in the fourth minute, after a woeful start from Ivory Coast.

Franck Kessie lost the ball in the midfield after a poor touch and Odilon Kossounou fell over instead of cutting out Emam Ashour’s ball for the City man.

The lead was doubled in the 32nd minute when Ramy Rabia scored with a header from a corner, following a brilliant block to preserve Egypt’s lead.

It was five minutes before the break when Ivory Coast pulled one back, as Ahmed Fatouh turned the ball into his own net.

Mohamed Salah scored Egypt’s third in the 52nd minute, restoring his team’s two goal lead in the second half and becoming man of the match.

The Liverpool star scored his fourth goal at this year’s AFCON when his team needed it most, as Ivory Coast threatened to come back from being two goals down.

The Ivorians pulled another one back through Guela Doue, but the equaliser never came.

Egypt are now bidding for a record-extending eighth Africa Cup of Nations title.

Nigeria beats Algeria and set up semifinal meeting with hosts Morocco

Earlier on Saturday, Nigeria beat Algeria 2-0 to set up a Wednesday semifinal meeting with Morocco, the hosts of this year’s AFCON.

The three-time African champions lost the final to Ivory Coast in the last edition and are now bidding to win the title for the first time since 2013.

It was the second-half strikes from Victor Osimhen and ‍Akor Adams that sealed a deserved quarterfinal win for the Super Eagles at the Grand Stade de Marrakesh.

Osimhen steered home a long cross from the left by Bruno Onyemaechi ⁠two minutes into the second half, and Adams increased Nigeria’s lead 10 minutes later as man of the match Osimhen unselfishly fed him the ball.

Nigeria, who two months ago missed out on World Cup qualification, had a comfortable 4-0 win over Mozambique ‍in the last-16 fixture on Monday.

On the other hand, Algeria had been forced to play extra-time before winning their last-16 clash ‌against DR Congo on Tuesday and the exertion could have played a role in Saturday’s performance.