AFCON 2021 final: A sad night for Egyptian fans as Senegal wins title

At the end of over 120 minutes of football and a penalty shoot out, the Pharoahs of Egypt lost out in their bid for a record extending Eight Africa cup of nations title on Sunday. In the penalty shoot out, a spot kick hit the cross bar, the other was saved by the Senegalese goal keeper,Edward Mendy and this summed up what could best be described as bad luck this time for the solid defending side.

Egyptian fans were left shattered. Many at a  viewing center in Cairo left hurriedly with sad faces as Sadio Mane fired pass the outstanding Egyptian goalie Gabaski. 

"We wished to win this trophy, all the Egyptians were waiting this day to feel happiness, that’s why we all gathered with cheerful ayes, we gained trust after beating Morocco, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon, but unfortunately we weren’t lucky, we will be waiting for world cup qualification."  Ahmed Abd El-Nabi, Egyptian football fan.

For Ahmed Mahfouz, another Egyptian football fan it is a sad ending but no one wins every time. "No one can win everything, we have a lot of benefits in this tournament, we gain many young players who played for the first time in this kind of tough and hard games, this is the difficult for the team in the tournament, this is difficult for the players, at the same time Senegal players are playing in teams in Europe while our players are playing in the local league except 3 players who played in the Premier League, they performed well, they acted like men." 

All four of Egypt's knockout games at the tournament went the distance into extra time. The North Africans ended the race of top contenders such as Ivory Coast and hosts Cameroon on spot-kicks. 

This time it ended differently for them with star player Mohammed Salah not even having the chance to take a penalty.