Pre-tournament favourites Senegal meet Burkina Faso in Douala, as the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals kick off on Wednesday.

Note: While this edition of the Africa Cup of Nations is officially referred as Afcon 2021 due to the tournament’s postponement, for continuity, we might sometimes refer to it as Afcon 2022.

Semi-Final: Burkina Faso vs Senegal

The delayed 2021 Africa Cup of Nations reaches the semi-final stage in Cameroon on Wednesday, with pre-tournament favourites Senegal going up against Burkina Faso.

Douala is the venue as the West African duo meet for a place in Sunday’s final, where they will meet the winners of Thursday’s heavy duty clash between hosts Cameroon and Egypt.

Sadio Mane swapped goalscoring for creativity as his much-fancied side were pushed all the way by Equatorial Guinea at the quarter-final stage.

The Liverpool star laid the opening goal on a plate for Famara Diedhiou, only for Jannick Buyla to grab a deserved equaliser for the gritty underdogs.

Cheikhou Kouyate and Ismaila Sarr did the business in the final quarter, though, keeping the Lions of Teranga on course for a maiden Afcon crown.

Aliou Cisse’s men had earlier knocked out Cape Verde in the Round of 16, after negotiating their way through Group B past the challenge of Guinea, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Burkina Faso also had to work mightily hard for their place in the last four, shocking North African favourites Tunisia.