Egypt beats champions to reach semi-finals

Egypt secured their place in the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations by defeating defending champions Ivory Coast in a thrilling quarter-final. The victory took Egypt closer to winning the tournament.

Egypt beats champions to reach semi-finals

Salah scored Egypt’s third goal in a 3-2 win on Saturday. The victory ended Ivory Coast’s dream of retaining the title. At the same time, the Liverpool star set a new record in the Afcon. He has scored against 11 different national teams so far.

After the match, Salah said, “It was a perfect win. But as I said before, we are fighting for our country.” He added, “Hopefully we can move on in the next match. The opponent is tough. But we will give our best. We are fighting very hard. You can see it from the players. No one is holding anything back. We are moving forward.’

With this goal, Salah equaled coach Hassan Hassan’s tally at the Afcon. Both have 11 goals. Salah needs one more goal to become Egypt’s top scorer in the tournament, when he will join Hassan El-Shazly.

Egypt will face Senegal in the semi-finals in Tangier on Wednesday. The two teams previously met in the 2021 Afcon final.