This time around, Pharaohs of Egypt will not pursue Moses, trying to stop him from crossing the Red Sea, but Sadio Mane and his Senegal.
Egypt and Pharaoh in-chief Mohamed Salah will try to thwart the efforts of Mane and his Lions of Teranga from galloping to the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title dream land.
The dream AFCON final takes centre-stage at the Olympia Stadium in Yaounde, Cameroon today Sunday.
This evening, the Liverpool teammates Mane and Salah go toe-to-toe in search of the continent’s coveted Holy Grail.
Therefore, this AFCON will go more personal for the Premier League leading scorer Salah who has managed a modest two goals and one assist at the AFCON finals.
Egypt are habitual AFCON title seven-time winners but for Salah, he is not part of that history because the last time the Pharaohs won it he was nowhere near the winning picture.
On the other hand, the Senegalese are looking for football justice, having suffered great injustice in the 2019 edition, which Egypt hosted and Algeria won the final 1-0.
Key players
Ahead of this game, you cannot look more than Salah for Egypt and Mane for Senegal with the Liverpool stars carrying the weight of expectations on their shoulders.
Both players are world class but different in their own right with Salah more of a left footed deadline winger who operates off the left wing, cuts in inside to score.
Mane, on the other hand, is more of a complete attacking player who can play anywhere in advanced attacking positions.
Egypt will bank on second choice goalkeeper Gabaski who saved two penalties in the 3-1 post-match semifinal win over Cameroon on Thursday.
The Zamalek keeper has stepped in the shoes of injured first-choice keeper Mohamed El Shanawy whereas centreback Ahmed Hegazi remains sidelined through injury.
Senegal do not have much injury issues in their ranks.
Head-to-Head
Egypt and Senegal have met 12 times across all competitions with the Pharaohs winning six games against four for the Lions of Teranga and the other two games ended in draws.
Rankings
If there is a static that points to Senegal’s superiority then it is that the Teranga Lions are Africa’s number one rated team and 20th in the world. Egypt occupy 45th place on the world rankings.