Egypt qualified for the semi-finals after defeating Morocco (2-1) in the quarter-finals, while Cameroon reached the same round after defeating Gambia with a clean double.
black knot
Egypt is a permanent knot for the Lions of Cameroon, especially in the African Cup of Nations tournaments, where Egypt was crowned twice in the final at their expense in 1986 and 2008.
In general, Egypt played against Cameroon 27 matches, during which it achieved 15 victories, compared to only 6 for Cameroon and 6 draws.
Egypt formed a knot in the last period for the Lions of Cameroon, as they outperformed them twice in the 2008 African Nations, and deprived them of reaching the World Cup in 2006 with a victory in Cairo (3-2) and a draw in Yaounde (1-1) to go to Côte d’Ivoire.
painful memory
Cameroon managed to end the Egyptian knot in 2017, and beat the Pharaohs with two goals to one in the final match of the African Cup of Nations in Gabon.
The 2017 confrontation is the last between the two teams, but it bears a very painful memory for the Egyptian team, which lost the opportunity to win the eighth title in its history and expand the difference with Cameroon to 4 championships in the struggle for the historical leadership of the continent.
Cameroon achieved its fifth title in history and reduced the difference with Egypt to only two titles, and it uses its stadium and its fans in the semi-finals of the African Nations 2021 in order to reach the final and prevent Egypt from increasing the balance of its championships, and trying to reduce the difference to one championship.
war and revenge
Samuel Eto’o, head of the Cameroonian Football Association, described his country’s semi-final match as a war, in a motivational speech to the Cameroon players after they qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament.
Eto’o faced the Pharaohs a lot, and succeeded in visiting their nets, but he was a witness to the losses of the 2006 World Cup qualifiers and the 2008 African Nations, and he is well aware of the value of the Pharaohs and their danger to his country’s dreams of winning the sixth title.
On the other hand, despite the Pharaohs’ historical superiority over the lions, the talk in Egypt revolves around the need to avenge Cameroon for the defeat of the 2017 final, which turned Cairo’s celebrations into sorrows after the tournament was very close to Egypt, before Cameroon turned the table and turned its delay with a goal into Win by two goals to one.