Internationals – Pape helps Senegal reach AFCON final

Pape Matar Sarr played his first minutes at the Africa Cup of Nations to help Senegal over the line in their semi-final victory against Burkina Faso on Wednesday evening.

Having watched on as an unused substitute in all of Senegal’s games at the tournament so far, barring their first group stage match against Zimbabwe when he was absent from the squad, our on-loan midfielder came on for the last 12 minutes of his side’s 3-1 win as they booked their place in Sunday’s final.

Leading 2-0 at the time of his introduction through Abdou Diallo and Idrissa Gueye, Pape replaced Bamba Dieng for the closing stages in Yaoundé, seeing Blati Toure halve the deficit for Burkina Faso shortly afterwards before Sadio Mane sealed the win three minutes from time.

Pape, who joined us last summer from Metz before being loaned back to the French side for 2021/22, now has five senior caps to his name and will be keen to add another when Senegal face either Egypt or hosts Cameroon in the showpiece final at the weekend (kick-off 7pm UK on Sunday).