Africa Cup of Nations 2017 Final preview

The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations has been an exciting tournament and on Sunday 5th February, the tournament will end.  The final will be contested by Egypt and Cameroon and played at the Stade de l'Amitié, Libreville in Gabon.

Reaching the final of the Africa Cup of Nations for Egypt is nothing new, having won the tournament seven times. The Pharaohs failed to qualify for the previous three Africa Cup of Nations amid years of upheaval in the country and the players seem determined to bring some joy and celebration to the Egyptian people.

Therefore, having missed three tournaments between 2012 and 2015, this is the fourth final in a row for Egypt when they have been part of the final tournament, which is some achievement.  It’s their ninth final overall and Egypt have great experience when it comes to this stage of the competition.

Their opponents are Cameroon, a team who were not fancied to go much further than the group stages at the start of the tournament.  However, the Indomitable Lions also have history when it comes to playing the Africa Cup of Nations final, having reached this stage of the tournament on six previous occasions. The latest of those was in 2002, when they defeated Senegal in the final on penalties after playing out a 0-0 draw.  Cameroon did not concede a single goal during that tournament and will be hoping to keep Egypt out in the final come Sunday.

Egypt have their 44-year-old goalkeeper, Essam El Hadary to thank for reaching the final, as he saved two penalties in the semi-final shootout with Burkina Faso.  In truth, the Stallions were the better team but paid the ultimate price for not finishing their chances.

Egypt manager, Hector Cuper commented on how well Burkina Faso played and how is own players were fatigued and played for penalties. It’s not a good sign ahead of the final, to have a group of players struggling for fitness and Cameroon will be aiming to take full advantage, despite having less rest ahead of the final.

Cameroon manager, Hugo Broos, will be thrilled to have made the final, especially after the problems in terms of player selection prior to the tournament.  In the semi-final against Ghana, Cameroon started well but the Black Stars slowly came into the match and became more dominant, failing to take any of their chances.  With the match poised at 0-0, a mistake from Ghana goalkeeper, Razak Brimah, allowed Cameroon to take the lead, which they extended in injury time to win the match 2-0 and reach the final.

This match, is a repeat of the 2008 final, which went the way of Egypt, 1-0 and the Pharaohs are the favourites to repeat their victory in the 2017 final.  However, Cameroon have a real togetherness about them and seem capable of taking the game all the way to penalties if necessary, something they will not be afraid to do having come through their quarter-final with Senegal.  With Cuper complaining about his players being tired, expect Egypt to come out and go for the win inside 90 minutes, whereas Cameroon will be happy to let Egypt come on to them and try and hit them on the counter-attack.

The previous nine Africa Cup of Nations finals have seen a winner by no more than one goal. Three of the last six have gone to penalties following a 0-0 draw and the other three have finished 1-0.  Therefore, expect a final with under 2.5 goals scored and the possibility of extra-time and penalties, with the match ending 0-0 after 90 minutes.