{"id":32272,"date":"2017-02-02T03:24:04","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T03:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/egypt-wins-shootout-to-reach-afcon-final\/"},"modified":"2017-02-02T03:23:58","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T03:23:58","slug":"egypt-wins-shootout-to-reach-afcon-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/egypt-wins-shootout-to-reach-afcon-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt wins shootout to reach Afcon final"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Egypt reached a record-equalling ninth Africa Cup of Nations final, beating Burkina Faso 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.}<\/p>\n

Veteran goalkeeper Essam El Hadary proved Egypt’s hero, saving Bertrand Traore’s spot-kick to secure victory.<\/p>\n

In normal time Mohamed Salah opened the scoring for Egypt when he curled a superb shot into the top left corner.<\/p>\n

Burkina Faso levelled when Aristide Bance chested down Charles Kabore’s cross and volleyed in.<\/p>\n

In doing so, they became the first side to score against Egypt this tournament.<\/p>\n

The Burkinabe, who were the more adventurous and ambitious side throughout normal play, took an immediate advantage in the shootout.<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper Herve Koffi, only 20 years old, magnificently pushed Abdallah El Said’s spot-kick on to the post.<\/p>\n

But he soon experienced the other side of shootouts when he stepped up to take his side’s fourth penalty and was unable to beat El Hadary – who at 24 years his senior is the oldest Nations Cup player in history.<\/p>\n

El Hadary’s experience – he now has a chance to win his fifth African title – proved vital as he then saved Bertrand Traore’s effort to send Burkina Faso home.<\/p>\n

{{}}It was a dramatic end to a game that was cagey, thanks to Egypt’s predominantly defensive approach, which had served them well and meant they had not conceded a goal going into the match.<\/p>\n

Two moments of excellent football provided the breakthroughs for the teams – Salah’s curling opener was sublime as was the chest control and volley from Bance that restored parity.<\/p>\n

Otherwise the football was not quite of the highest standard, with Koffi largely a bystander.<\/p>\n

While El Hadary was called on more often, he was relatively comfortable in keeping out shots from Prejuce Nakoulma and Banou Diawara.<\/p>\n

Egypt’s victory continues their remarkable success rate in Nations Cup semi-finals – they have now won their past six.<\/p>\n

In clinching victory in Libreville they equal Ghana’s record of appearing in nine finals.<\/p>\n

And if on Sunday they beat the winner of Thursday’s semi-final between Cameroon and Ghana, Egypt will extend their own record as the most successful Nations Cup side with an eighth title.<\/p>\n

\"Goalkeeper<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Egypt reached a record-equalling ninth Africa Cup of Nations final, beating Burkina Faso 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.} Veteran goalkeeper Essam El Hadary proved Egypt’s hero, saving Bertrand Traore’s spot-kick to secure victory. In normal time Mohamed Salah opened the scoring for Egypt when he curled a superb shot into the top left […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32272"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32272"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}