"We overcame the Ivory Coast and Morocco in what amounted to finals earlier than the very last and now we are facing another one towards Cameroon," stated Mozambique-born Egypt instruct Carlos Queiroz.
While Liverpool famous person Salah and his Pharaoh teammates had been fighting fellow pinnacle-10 ranked teams in the knockout stages of the marquee African event, Cameroon had a gentler passage.
They defeated the Comoros, who needed to use an outfield participant among the posts after Covid-19 and harm sidelined their 3 goalkeepers, then Gambia, the lowest ranked of the 24 groups on the finals.
The conflict on Thursday comes a day after Senegal, whose superstar-packed facet consists of another Liverpool megastar in Sadio Mane, face Burkina Faso inside the first semi-very last, also in Yaounde.
It may be an emotional occasion for the Burkinabe, whose instruct Kamou Malo says they'll be "playing for our folks that are being examined via present day events", relating to a recent navy coup.
Here, AFP Sport looks beforehand to the ultimate-four clashes with Senegal favoured to qualify for a 2nd successive final, even as Cameroon and Egypt meet in a repeat of the 2017 identify decider.
Cameroon v Egypt
Cameroon sharpshooters Vincent Aboubakar (six) and Karl Toko-Ekambi (5) are the leading scorers in this Cup of Nations, having bagged among them all 11 dreams scored by using the Indomitable Lions.
Egypt have specifically painful reminiscences of Aboubakar, whose late purpose gave Cameroon a come-from-at the back of 2-1 triumph within the 2017 final in Libreville.
The Saudi Arabia-primarily based goalmouth predator drew a blank towards Gambia, but changed into denied a hat-trick with the aid of near shaves and a header striking the chest of Gambian goalkeeper Baboucarr Gaye.
