By Bakah Derick
Senegal are the Champions of Africa. The Teranga Lions clinched their first ever Africa Cup of Nations title on Sunday 6 February 2022 in Yaounde-Cameroon as the 33rd edition of the tournament came to a close.
Coach Aliou Cissé and his men beat seven times champions Egypt 4-2 after shootouts at the Olembe Stadium.
A Senegalese witch doctor whose name we for Kahone had predicted the Teranga Lions as winners of the tournament unlike Prophets Stephen Jerubabel who predicted a North African Country amongst others.
The witch doctor said he saw his country winning the continental crown in his dream as far back as December 2021.
Senegal lost the 2019 final to Algeria 1-0 in Egypt.
Sadio Mané and Edouard Mendy have been awarded best player and goalkeeper of the tournament repsectively while Cameroon captain and striker Vincent Aboubakar wins the golden boot award with eight goals.
Senegal's road to the final
The 2019 runners-up of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Egypt 2019 were undoubtedly no small quantity in the 2021 rendez-vous in Cameroon. With a football world class player like Sadio Mané, it was certainly misplaced wisdom trying to ignore the Teranga Lions.
During their opening fixture against Zimbabwe, many expected an overbearing win for the Senegalese who rather elected for a humbling 1-0 win from the penalty spot in additional time.
It is obviously the high rating of the Lions that turned their second opponent; The Republic of Guinea to a huge giant. Finishing 1-1 with the Guineans started casting doubts on Sadio Mané and his group's capacity to go beyond the group stages.
As if to demonstrate maturity, the Teranga Lions did just the essentials settling for a draw against the Flames of Malawi. The nil-nil tie was good enough to take them to the round of 16 with five points.
Facing best looser Cape Verde from group A didn't look simply. The Cape Verdians managed to hold the Lions on a virgin draw at the end of the first 45mins. 18 minutes upon resumption, the big player Sadio Mané rose to the big occasion to get the opener and at full time teammate Dieng completed their 2-0 win.
The Senegalese will make their intention clearer when they take on Equatorial Guinea at the Quarter-finals. They scored three times with Mané not included ending the game with a 3-1 win.
Their win qualified them for a semi-final match against another first title chaser Burkina Faso on Wednesday 2 February 2022 in the Mfandena in Yaounde.
The adrenaline packed fixture ended with the Senegalese going through to the finals after stunning the Stalions 3-1 at the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium setting up a final against the Pharoahs of Egypt.