AFCON 2017: Essam El Hadary stars for Egypt as they defeat Burkina Faso on penalties to reach final

Egypt's 44-year-old goalkeeper Essam El Hadary took centre stage in their semi-final encounter against Burkina Faso after he produced two brilliant saves during the penalty shootout to book a place in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations. Egypt have now also equalled Ghana's AFCON record for most appearances in a final.

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Prior to the penalty shootout, the teams were locked in at 1-1 as Mohamed Salah opened the scoring for Egypt in the 66th minute after he curled a superb shot into the top left corner.

Burkina Faso levelled the score line within seven minutes after Charles Kabore crossed the ball into Aristide Bance, who chested the ball down and volleyed the ball into goal to make it 1-1.

Despite Burkina Faso being the more attacking minded team and having a lot more chances to score, they could not capitalise as Essam El Hadary saved multiple shots from Prejuce Nakoulma and Banou Diawara to keep his team in the game.

After that goal by Aristide Bance, Burkina Faso became the first team to breach Egypt's defence in the 2017 AFCON.

It looked like Burkina Faso would end up winning the penalty shootout after their keeper, 20-year-old Herve Koffi saved Egypt's first penalty kick. But Egypt's keeper was quick to turn things in their favour after he stopped Herve Koffi's spot kick followed by Bertrand Traoré's to win the match for them and now Egypt will be looking to win their eighth AFCON title.

The final of the Africa Cup of Nations is set to take place on February 5, and Egypt could go up against either Cameroon or Ghana, with the two teams set to face off in the other semi-final on Thursday.