Egypt ask Afcon chiefs to DELAY final against Senegal by 24 hours after gruelling penalty shootout win over Cameroon
EGYPT have called on Africa Cup of Nations organisers to delay the final by 24 hours.
The final between Egypt and Senegal is scheduled to take place on Sunday at 7 p.m. GMT.
But after playing 120 minutes against Ivory Coast, Morocco and Cameroon in the knock-out stages, Egypt want to play on Monday instead.
Assistant boss Diaa El-Sayed said: "I hope CAF would move the final from Sunday to Monday for the sake of fair play, they have done that with the third-place decider.
"We are the only team that played 120 minutes in three consecutive games.
"The players are fully focused, they have a good base to build on, and we thank their clubs for that."
Afcon chiefs have already decided to push back the third-place qualifier between Cameroon and Burkina Faso, so El-Sayed's wish could be granted.
The assistant boss will take on a lot of responsibility for the final with manager Carlos Queiroz serving a touchline ban after getting sent off in the semi-final against Cameroon.
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But he is confident the team will cope without the Portuguese, pointing to leaders in the dressing room such as Mohamed Salah.
El-Sayed added: "[Mo] Salah being the group leader gives the players a lot of positive energy as well. We also have a great head coach that has a lot of experience dealing with players.
“I believe Queiroz’s send-off was undeserved, I’d like to dedicate the win to both him and his assistant Roger de Sa.
“I don’t want to discuss refereeing mistakes or the things we suffered throughout the tournament, players determination changes everything on the pitch.
“We appreciate our fans’ support and we’d like to thank them for being there for us. We’ll celebrate tonight, but after all, we haven’t won anything yet.”
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