By John Essien
Diaa El-Sayed, Egypt Assistant Manager has called on Africa Cup of Nations organisers to move the final against Senegal back a day after their victory over host nation Cameroon.
The Pharoah’s edged the indomitable Lions 3-1 via penalties to book their place in the final as goalkeeper Mohamad Abou Gabal became the hero on the night.
However, the seven-time champions for fear of fatigue, have asked for the final to be postponed having gone the distance in both the semi-final and last-16 ties.
It would be recalled that Egypt required extra-time to beat Morocco in the quarter final with their last-four clash also coming a day later than their opponents on Sunday.
Speaking after Thursday’s win, El-Sayed stated: “I hope CAF would move the final from Sunday to Monday for the sake of fair play, they have done that with the third-place decider.”
Cameroon’s third-place play-off against Burkina Faso was moved forward 24 hours to Saturday evening, without any explicit reason provided by African football body CAF.
Meanwhile, Egypt are set to be without Manager Carlos Queiroz on the touchline for Sunday’s final after his sending off on Thursday, with the game currently scheduled for a 7pm GMT kick-off at Olembe Stadium.
“We are the only team that played 120 minutes in three consecutive games,” El-Sayed stated. “The players are fully focused, they have a good base to build on, and we thank their clubs for that.
“[Mohamed] Salah being the group leader gives the players a lot of positive energy as well. We also have a great head coach that has a lot of experience dealing with players.
“I believe Queiroz’s send-off was undeserved, I’d like to dedicate the win to both him and his assistant Roger de Sa.
“I don’t want to discuss refereeing mistakes or the things we suffered throughout the tournament, players determination changes everything on the pitch.
“We appreciate our fans’ support and we’d like to thank them for being there for us. We’ll celebrate tonight, but after all, we haven’t won anything yet.”
