AFCON 2021: Salah magic sends Egypt into semi-finals as Pharaohs win against Morocco

For 45 minutes it looked like Egypt were destined to exit the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) after conceding an early goal in the quarter-final against Morocco.

The Pharaohs fell behind after just seven minutes when Sofiane Boufal stepped up and converted a penalty to give Egypt's North African rivals the perfect start.

The goal clearly rattled Egypt and Carlos Queiroz’s men saw their game plan disrupted a bit. However, they impressively regained their composure to overturn the result.

In the end, goals from captain Mohamed Salah and Aston Villa's Trezeguet secured an important win for the Pharaohs after extra time. The win booked their place in the semi-final of the competition.

Salah rises to the occasion

It has been a quiet AFCON for many of the players who play in Europe’s best leagues, but Salah has been right in the thick of affairs for Egypt.

The Liverpool star arrived at the tournament as the most in-form player in the world – he is currently the top scorer in the Premier League and also has the most assists in the English top-flight.

So far Salah hasn’t disappointed at all for his country, either. When the going got tough for Egypt, Salah stepped up to score the equalizer before setting up Trezeguet for the winner.

If his equalizer was considered fortuitous, the assist was simply class as he bamboozled the Moroccan defense before playing an outside-of-the-foot pass to Trezeguet to tap home. This was Salah’s best game at the AFCON.

Egypt on course for 8th title

The Pharaohs didn’t start the tournament well and many wrote them off after they lost their opening group game against a star-studded Nigerian team.

However, Queiroz’s side have recovered superbly and are currently playing some very good football. Now, their target will be to become champions again after reaching the last four.

“I think the best compliment I can give the players is to thank them, they want to continue in the tournament and they want to reach the final,” the Egypt boss said, as quoted by KingFut.

“I have great players. We deserved to win today because we dominated the game after going behind. We want to represent Egypt better in the next match after beating a great team like Morocco, but now we are focusing on Cameroon."

Egypt have now qualified for the semi-finals more times than any side in the history of the AFCON and a tough clash against hosts Cameroon beckons in the last-four.

The Pharaohs, though, have shown that they can survive adversity, which means winning a record-extending eighth AFCON title is not far-fetched.