For a long time it wasn’t pretty, but with this Senegal side it rarely is. Not that they will mind. Senegal are the great underachievers of the Africa Cup of Nations and if they beat Cameroon or Egypt on Sunday to lift the trophy for the first time, nobody will much care how they did it. Aliou Cissé’s job is not to entertain but to win.
This was a game that followed the classic Cissé pattern: rugged solidity to start, gradually squeezing the opponent into mistakes before late strikes: eight of the nine goals Senegal have scored in Cameroon have come after the hour. The breakthrough here came on 70 minutes, a corner dropping in the box for the Paris Saint‑Germain centre-back Abdou Diallo to hook in. The second was knocked in by Idrissa Gueye after Sadio Mané had outmuscled Issa Kaboré before cutting the ball back. Mané then got the decisive third with a deft finish on the break.
