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Former Senegal international Mamadou Niang described his side\u2019s semi-final defeat to Egypt as \u201cpure robbery\u201d in a recent interview.<\/p>\n The former Marseille striker, speaking two decades after the tournament<\/a>, claimed Senegal were denied a clear penalty in the dying moments of their 2-1 loss in Cairo. According to Niang, this was the decision that ultimately sent Egypt through to the final, which they would win on home soil.\u200b<\/p>\n Niang, who scored Senegal\u2019s equalizer in the 51st minute, insisted a penalty shout in the final minutes, involving Ibrahim Said and Diomansy Kamara, was undeniable. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t even need a referee to see it was a penalty,\u201d he said,\u200b<\/p>\n Instead of awarding the spot-kick, Cameroonian referee Divine Evehe gave a goal kick, leaving Senegal players and officials furious. \u201cAt that moment, you just feel this huge sense of injustice,\u201d Niang recalled. \u201cYou think, \u2018No way, if this isn\u2019t a penalty, I\u2019ll never get another one in my life.’\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n Diomansy Kamara, at the time, bitterly remarked<\/a>, \u201cThings don\u2019t work as they should in Africa. It was the turning point of the game as we would have drawn level. However, Egypt is the host nation, and that is clearly the advantage.\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n Despite his frustration, Niang was quick to praise Egypt\u2019s squad, particularly playmaker, \u201cAboutrika was like [Zinedine Zidane] for them. He was a fantastic player who could have played easily in any top European club,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Aboutrika assisted Amr Zaki\u2019s 81st-minute winner after he replaced Mido, who had famously clashed with coach Hassan Shehata on the touchline moments earlier.<\/p>\n However, Niang stopped short of denying Egypt deserved their record-breaking three consecutive AFCON titles between 2006 and 2010, \u201cI\u2019m not saying they didn\u2019t deserve to win the AFCON in 2006, but definitely not in that manner.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Senegal international Mamadou Niang described his side\u2019s semi-final defeat to Egypt as \u201cpure robbery\u201d in a recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[159],"class_list":{"0":"post-80876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-senegal","8":"tag-senegal"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116060156322331041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}