Egypt assistant manager Diaa El-Sayed has called on Africa Cup of Nations organisers to move their final versus Senegal back a day after their gruelling penalty victory over Cameroon.
The Pharaohs have gone the distance in both the semi-final and last-16 ties, having also required extra-time to beat Morocco in the quarters. Their last-four clash also came 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.
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.”
