Senegal vs. Egypt Predictions: Mane v Salah in the AFCON final

Live on Sky Sports and BBC, Senegal go up against Egypt in this massive AFCON Final at the Paul Biya Stadium this Sunday at 7pm. It promises to be a nerve-racking finale with Senegal looking for their first ever title after being beaten in their last two finals and Egypt looking to extend their splendid record by winning a record eighth title.

Liverpool teammates Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah go head to head in this mouth-watering clash with fans all around the world tuning in.

Senegal come into this off the back of two 3-1 wins over Equatorial Guinea and Burkina Faso in the quarter finals and semifinals respectively while Egypt overcame hosts Cameroon on penalties in the semifinals to qualify for the final. Egypt are clearly the most experienced side at this level having already won 7 titles but Senegal have looked impressive in the knockouts and look to have a complete squad this year capable of going up against anyone. This is an extremely tough game to call and for that reason, my bets in this preview will not be result based.

An exciting AFCON final awaits us and as usual I have you covered with my 2 best betting angles for this game included in the preview below:

Team News:

Senegal head into the final with a fully fit squad. No missing players.

Akram Tawfik is out for Egypt while Hamdy Fathy, Ahmed Hegazy & first-choice goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy are doubtful.

Senegal possible starting lineup:
E Mendy; Sarr, Koulibaly, A Diallo, Ciss; Kouyate, N Mendy, I Gueye; Mane, Dieng, Dia

Egypt possible starting lineup:
Sobhy; Kamal, Trezeguet, Hamdi, Fatouh; Ashraf, El-Sulya, Elneny; Mohamed, Marmoush, Salah

This is expected to be a tense final between two top nations and deserving finalists. Neither side will allow the other team to play freely and we can expect a stop-start game full of tackles and fouls from both the teams.

The previous AFCON final saw 42 fouls and history tells us that AFCON finals are always heated with players from both sides putting in aggressive tackles as well as making cynical fouls all over the pitch.

I expect the free kick line of Over 30.5 to be crossed in this final with offsides also counting towards the total as a bonus. Take this as our main bet for the AFCON final with a 1pt stake.

The referees in this tournament have been lenient in the 1st half but we should see these fouls punished in the 2nd half so adding a 2nd half card to boost the odds.

Sadio Mané is Senegal’s top scorer in this tournament with 3 goals to his name and also scored for them in the 3-1 semi-finals win over Burkina Faso.

Omar Kamal will be up against the pace of Sadio Mané and has already picked up a yellow card each in the quarterfinal as well as the semi finals.

Lastly, Idrissa Gueye is averaging the most tackles (1.8) and the most fouls (2.2) for Senegal and considering the high stakes, we could see him make a cynical foul to pick up a booking.

Combining these 3 selections gives us a massive long shot @ 50/1 and I am happy to have a very small stake of 0.25pt on that.

Best of luck if you follow these selections. Please always gamble responsibly.