"Wednesday's Africa Cup of Nations semifinals were covered head-to-toe in narrative appeal. Senegal-Egypt was the more straightforward of the two, in an increasingly star-dominated landscape: Former Liverpool teammates Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah faced off internationally for the sixth time, and the second time deep in AFCON knockout play (Senegal beat Egypt in the 2022 final, on penalties). On the other side, Nigeria-Morocco had the more immediately intriguing storyline:"
"Nigeria had a roller coaster of a group stage, winning all three matches of its matches with eight goals scored and four against: 2-1 against Tanzania; 3-2 in a wild one against Tunisia, in which Nigeria opened up a 3-0 lead then gave up two late goals to shake the nerves; and 3-1 against Uganda, that time doing a better job seeing out a 3-0 lead."
"The Super Eagles then steamrolled Mozambique 4-0 in the round of 16, and dispatched Algeria 2-0 in the quarters. Morocco, on the other hand, stumbled in the group stage with a 1-1 draw to Mali, but otherwise took care of Comoros and Zambia by an aggregate 5-0 scoreline. A 1-0 victory over Tanzania led into a 2-0 dispatching of heavyweights Cameroon in the quarters, setting up a semifinal in which neither team had trailed all tournament."
The Africa Cup of Nations semifinals featured two headline matchups: Senegal versus Egypt highlighted a star-driven clash between Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah, while Nigeria faced Morocco in a clash of tournament form and recent continental pedigree. Morocco prevailed over Nigeria in a tense semifinal, surviving 120 minutes without conceding and winning 4-2 in the penalty shootout to advance to the final. Nigeria enjoyed high-scoring group-stage wins and comfortable knockout victories over Mozambique and Algeria. Morocco stumbled with a 1-1 draw to Mali but beat Comoros, Zambia, Tanzania and Cameroon to reach the semifinals. Neither team had trailed prior to penalties.
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