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AFCON semi-finals: Egypt cry for vengeance

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

This is not just an ordinary semi-final match as Egypt face hosts, Cameroon in the Africa Cup of Nations. It is a clash of the most successful teams in the continental championship.

In between the two are 12 titles out of 33 editions of the premier continental fiesta. Egypt are seven times winners and are gunning for a record-extending eighth time.

Cameroon are next with five titles and are hoping for a sixth.

More than that, both are meeting again after the 2017 finals when Cameroon came from behind to upstage Egypt.

Now, the Pharaohs who started the competition slowly with a 0-1 loss to Nigeria and have managed to score just four goals in open play in five matches now have a chance to explode and possibly revenge the 2017 loss to Cameroon in the final match.

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In the 2017 final match, Egypt looked close to winning a record-extending eighth title after taking a first-half lead against Cameroon, through  midfielder Mohamed Elneny.

But two second-half goals from Nicolas Nkoulou and Vincent Aboubakar turned the match on its head and condemned Egypt to a cruel defeat, which was hard to swallow for a team that had craved the title so much.

While recent history favours Egypt, who won three out of their last four encounters with Cameroon in the Africa Nations Cup, their being goal-shy could turn the match against them.

Cameroon on the other side have been on offensive with skipper, Vincent Aboubakar already set to become the tournament’s top scorer.

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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