Hosts Egypt are just one win away from a record fifth African Nations Cup title after they beat Senegal 2-1 in a riveting semifinal in Cairo on Tuesday.
The Pharaohs will meet fellow group-A outfit Côte d’Ivoire — whom they beat 3-1 in the first round — in Friday’s showpiece after the Elephants edged Nigeria 1-0 in Alexandria earlier in the day.
However, if one wanted drama, it was Cairo you had to be in as Mido, who had hailed himself as the ”big man” for this tournament, had an extraordinary outburst at coach Hassan Shehata when he was replaced 10 minutes from the end with the sides level at 1-1.
Those familiar with Egyptian swearwords probably had a field day as the 22-year-old Spurs striker ambled off the field in a state of disbelief as Amr Zaki waited to go on.
He had to be separated from Shehata by Hossam Hassan and the 74 000-strong crowd voicing its displeasure at his antics with cries of ”Out! Out!” that were a minute later drowned out by cheers as Zaki headed home the decisive goal.
Mido had to be pushed by one of the staff members to go and join in the celebrations, but received scant regard as Zaki pushed him away — instead, he and the rest of the squad ran and embraced Shehata.
There was even more drama to come as referee Divine Evehe pointed to the spot for a penalty for Senegal at the death for a clear foul by Ibrahim Dawoud, and then rescinded his decision.
”Things don’t work as they should do in Africa,” said Senegal striker Diomansy Kamara. ”It was the turning point of the game, as we would have drawn level. However, Egypt is the host nation and that is clearly the advantage.”
While one Premiership star had what could be conservatively described as a truly terrible day at the office, another had a superb one as inspirational Côte d’Ivoire captain Didier Drogba scored the only goal in their victory.
It was the 27-year-old’s third goal here — not including the winning penalty in the epic shoot-out with Cameroon — and gives Côte d’Ivoire a chance to win their second-ever title and emulate the squad that won the 1992 edition.
Egypt had opened the scoring through a penalty by man-of-the-match Ahmed Hasan — his third goal in the last two matches — before Mamadou Niang deservedly equalised with his second in two matches.
Egypt assistant coach Shawky Gharib tried to steer clear of the Mido theatrics.
”Each player is treated the same in the squad and if we wish to make a change, it can be anyone we choose it to be. It is not their choice; it is for the benefit of the team.
”Besides, Amr Zaki is a terrific player as he showed when he scored just after coming on. We will deal with the [Mido] problem on Wednesday.
”As regards the final, well, we beat them in the group stage but they had a lot of players missing and have played really well in the second round,” added Gharib, who stands in for Shehata at post-match press conferences.
There was no such drama at the other semifinal and Nigeria coach Austin Eguavoen admitted his team were outplayed by Côte d’Ivoire, but questioned the winning goal by Drogba.
”We did not play well; this was our worst game at this tournament and we were clearly outplayed in all departments by our opponents. Probably this had to do with fatigue, but our ball movement was slow,” said Eguavoen.
”However, the goal that finally beat us was scored from an offside goal. Drogba was at least 7m offside before he scored, but the referee gave the goal.”
Côte d’Ivoire coach Henri Michel said he is satisfied with the remarkable progress his young team have recorded in two years.
”I’m very satisfied with the performance of my young team, which only took shape about two years ago. Our targets were to qualify for the World Cup as well as the Nations Cup, and we have achieved both of them.
”And at this tournament, our objective was to advance from one round to the next and it appears it is working well for us,” said the 57-year-old Frenchman.
It may be working well for them, but for Mido it seems that with every match he plays it is getting worse, and that was not in his script on January 20 when the tournament started. — Sapa-AFP