Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Elneny says Egypt ‘deserve’ to reach AFCON final

Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Elneny could not hide his delight after helping Egypt reach the AFCON final by beating host nations Cameroon.

The Pharaohs stuck against the odds, held the Indomitable Lions to a 0-0 in 90 minutes before winning in a penalty shoot out.

Cameroon had not lost a game in Yaounde since 1988 and were huge favourites to win the tournament, but it wasn’t to be with Elneny and Mohamed Salah’s Egypt emerging victorious.

After the game the Arsenal star said they deserved to progress to the final because they were tactically disciplined and were the better side even when they did not have the ball.

He added: “We are a strong side and everyone can see and we are going to prepare for the final like champions too.

“We have to recover because we have played a lot of games for 120 minutes so we need to recover but we have to prepare very well.

“This team deserves all it has gotten and we are going to make sure that we have prepared very well for the final and Insha Allah we will win it.

“We played well and fought against a very good Cameroon side who were roared on by their home fans but we knew if we stayed in the game then we had a chance.

“We are a very good side and it showed today.”

The final on Sunday will have huge Premier League interest with Liverpool’s Sadio Mane hoping to lead Senegal to their first ever AFCON title, and he will have to beat his teammate Mohamed Salah to get there.

Crystal Palace’s Cheikhou Kouyaté and Aston Villa’s Trézéguet are other Premier League players who will be playing in the final.

Egypt is the most successful country in the history of the Africa Cup of Nations winning the tournament seven times, but their last triumph came in 2010.

They will get a chance to show the world again why they won the trophy three times on the spin in the 2000s.

Cameroon’s defeat also means that since Egypt hosted and won the tournament in 2006, no nation has hosted and reached the final with the Pharaohs ensuring they hold the envious record by defeating Cameroon in their famous  Yaounde Stadium.

Cameroon though will have to dust themselves up and take on Burkina Faso who lost to Senegal in the third place game.