Note: While this edition of the Africa Cup of Nations is officially referred as Afcon 2021 due to the tournament’s postponement, for continuity, we might sometimes refer to it as Afcon 2022.
The delayed 2021 Africa Cup of Nations champions will be crowned on Sunday, as Senegal and Egypt meet in Yaounde with the Afcon title at stake.
Mohamed Salah vs Sadio Mane will be the headline battle but there’s plenty more bubbling beneath the surface than the two Liverpool stars plying their club trade in the English Premier League.
Mane made sure of the final place for his side with a top notch finish in the closing stages to seal a 3-1 victory over Burkina Faso on Wednesday.
Blati Toure had threatened to spoil matters for the pre-tournament favourites with his 82nd-minute goal, but Mane’s strike added to earlier goals from Abdou Diallo and Idrissa Gueye to see them safely through.
The Egyptians needed penalties to prize their way past the challenge of host nation Cameroon in their semi-final on Thursday.
It was the third tie in a row going all the way for the Pharaohs, leaving them on their last legs going into the final, not to mention Carlos Queiroz being sent off for his touchline tantrums to leave him banned for the showpiece.
Keeper Gabaski was the shootout hero, aided by some dodgy Cameroonian penalty taking, saving twice before Clinton N’Jie missed the target as the hosts bowed out.
Salah and Co had previously knocked fellow North Africans Morocco out at the quarter-final stage, having dispensed with Ivory Coast in the Round of 16.
Defeat to Nigeria in their opening match of the competition is a distant memory, with victories over Guinea-Bissau and Sudan sealing safe passage to the knockouts.
The Senegalese charge to the final took a while to gain traction as they limped through the pool phase, striking in injury time to break Zimbabwean hearts before slugging out goalless draws with Guinea and Malawi.
They stepped it up a gear to ease past Cape Verde in the last 16, ahead of a 3-1 success against dogged Equatorial Guinea in the quarter-finals.
Kick off at 21:00 (Central African Time).
Africa Cup of Nations predictions for 6 February
Find all the fixtures and results for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations here.
Prediction methodology explained: The expected win percentage is based off publicly available odds. For example, if a team’s odds are 2.30, the expected chance of winning is 43%. If the odds are 1.62 the expected chance of winning is 62% and so on. These are accurate at the time of writing but are subject to change. Where there is no value listed, the odds were not available at the time of writing. Other odds added here are taken from soccerstats247’s algorithm.
| RESULT PREDICTION | Senegal to win |
| OVER/UNDER PREDICTION | over 2.5 goals |
| HT / FT PREDICTION | draw / Senegal to win |
| TEAM TO SCORE PREDICTION | both teams |
| ANYTIME GOALSCORER PREDICTION | n/a |