Egypt forward Mohamed Salah described the victory over defending champions Ivory Coast as a “perfect win”, hailing his teammates after qualifying for the semifinals of the Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday.
Salah scored the third goal for Hossam Hassan’s side, as Egypt ended Ivory Coast’s reign with a narrow 3-2 triumph, with Liverpool’s talisman setting a new record by scoring against 11 different national teams at the Afcon.
Egypt will face Senegal on Wednesday in Tangier, for a place in the final, in a repeat of the 2021 Afcon final.
“It was a perfect win, but as I said before, we are fighting for our country,” Salah told Caf’s media channel.
“Hopefully we go through the next game as well, it’s against a tough opponent, but we will give our best.
“We are fighting so hard, you can see the players, nobody is holding anything... We are just carrying on,” he said.
Salah equalled his manager Hassan’s Afcon tally, with each scoring 11 goals.
He needs just one more goal to become Egypt’s all-time top scorer in the tournament alongside Hassan El-Shazly.
Salah, 33, said Egypt were not “100% the favourites” to win the title, with Nigeria, Morocco and Senegal all have players competing in European leagues.
“Most of our national team players play in the domestic league, it’s not to belittle them, but we are trying our best because we love our country,” he told beIN Sports.
“The game (against Senegal) will be difficult, they have a squad that plays at a high level in Europe, but I hope we can achieve victory.”
• Iliman Ndiaye scored the only goal as Senegal beat 10-man Mali 1-0 on Friday to book a semifinal berth at the Africa Cup of Nations for the third time in the last four tournaments.
Ndiaye netted after 27 minutes, taking advantage of a goalkeeping howler to put Senegal ahead in a tense quarter-final against their west African neighbours.
Mali were reduced to 10 men for the second half after captain Yves Bissouma was sent off for a second caution on the stroke of halftime.
He was booked first for a clumsy challenge in the 25th minute and was dismissed after a needless foul on Idrissa Gana Gueye.
Mali were down to 10 men from the 26th minute of their previous clash against Tunisia and still managed to squeeze through on penalties but there was no recovery this time around against a polished Senegalese outfit.
Ndiaye started the move that led to his goal with a run down the right wing, passing to wing back Krepin Diatta who then squared into the penalty area.
Mali goalkeeper Djigui Diarra looked to have cut off the effort but the ball slipped from his grasp and squeezed under his body.
Ndiaye was quickest to snap up the loose ball and finished from close-in.
Diarra more than made up for his horror error, however, with a series of fine second-half stops to deny Senegal a bigger advantage as a gallant Mali battled away to get back into the contest.
Diarra made excellent diving saves and palmed away stinging shots to deny Idrissa Gana Gueye, Sadio Mane and substitutes Pathe Ciss and Lamine Camara.
Mali had a handful of half-chances in the second half but were mainly on the back foot with hard-working striker Lassine Sinayoko an outlet for a rare counter-attack, which kept Edouard Mendy in Senegal’s goal on his toes. — Reuters
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