By 
Senegal moved to the Africa Cup Of Nations final after defeating a resilient Burkina Faso side 3-1 on Wednesday evening.
Diallo opened the scoring for Lions of Teranga with twenty minutes left on the clock before Idrissa Gana Gueye and Liverpool’s Sadio Mane wrapped the win to ensure a place in the final for Cisse’s men.
The Lions of teranga fed off an energetic start from the stallions as they made their intentions clear from the start, with a zippy, attacking approach that portrayed no sign of fear of their supposed superiors.
But it was Burkina Faso’s Bertrand Traoré who fired off the game’s first shot, a wayward effort from 20 yards.
Minutes later, Mendy and Cyrille Bayala accidentally had a clash of heads and noses, to be precise when challenging for the ball on half-way. Mendy, in particular, looked in serious pain hence being carried off on a stretcher.
On the 29th minute, Burkina Faso goalkeeper Herve Koffi also collided with Cheikhou Kouyate in the 29th minute after Koffi came racing off his line to the edge of his area to try to punch clear a ball.
He leapt above his teammate (Steve Yago) to get there and connected with the ball just before colliding with Kouyaté.
Before the break, Edmond Tapsoba was booked for blocking Gueye’s shot with his arm. But that card and the penalty decision, that followed were overturned by the referee on review, because Tapsoba’s arm was by his side and he had no chance of getting out of the way of Gueye’s shot from the edge of the box.
In a balanced half, the stallions best attempt at goal fell to Bertrand Traore whose shot on the run was blocked and later pounced by Hassane Bande on the rebound, from a tight angle forcing Edouard Mendy to push it behind for a corner.
In the second half, Issoufou Dayo punt a long ball forward. Mendy decided not to come for it, allowing Traoré to canter onto it inside the Senegalese box. Fortunately for the keeper, Koulibaly kept pace with the striker and slid to it to block his shot.
Unlike the first half, the Lions of Teranga dominated much of the proceedings in the closing half, imposing alot of pressures on the Burkinabes backline trying to get their opening goal and put the game into their favor.
The game grew quite disjointed after the hour mark and it was no surprise that Kamou Malo, the Stallions coach decided to introduce fresh legs but Cissé was thinking of doing likewise, ideally with a view of adding more creativity to his midfield
With all the sides still level, Cisse introduced Pape Gueye and Ismaïla Sarr for Kouyaté and Famara Diedhou which meant Dieng had to shift into the centre forward position – a tactical change that had an impact on the game.
Senegal finally made a breakthrough with twenty minutes to go after Burkina Faso failed to clear a corner, prompting Koulibaly to make an overhead kick which fell to Abdou Diallo.
Diallo kept his cool to guide his effort into the net from six yards.
From there, it all appeared to be so easy for Senegal as they doubled their scoreline.
The goal came after Mané chased down and won the ball ball from Isa Kabore on the byline to square it back to two teammates. Dieng was first to get to it but his shot took a nick off Idrissa Gueye on its way to the net which got the two arguing over who got the goal, but there was little doubt Senegal were already headed for the final.
Four minutes later after Senegal’s second, Burkina Faso pulled a goal back after Kaboré zoomed down the left to cross for Ibrahim Blati Touré, who arrived on the run to sends the ball into the net from 10 yards with his knee which meant the game was still on.
But a mix-up in midfield between Toure and Tapsoba allowed Senegal to launch a counter that sent Mané racing through one-on-one with the goal keeper, Mane kept his cool by drawing the keeper forward to dink his effort over him into the net to seal it for Senegal.
The Lions of Teranga are going to play their third final in 22 years, their last came in 2019 when they lost to Algeria who didn’t make it past the group stages in this edition of the tournament.
The Stallions, who had a disappointing night await to take on the losing team between Cameroon and Egypt for a third place playoff.
