Sadio Mané sent his country to the World Cup at the expense of Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah on Tuesday as Senegal beat Egypt 3-1 in a penalty shootout after their playoff ended 1-1 on aggregate.
Senegal’s victory, with Mané hitting the winning spot-kick, was a repeat of the African Cup of Nations final last month when Mané clinched a first major title for his country by also scoring the winning penalty in a shootout against the Egyptians.
There was more pain for Salah, who missed Egypt’s first penalty in this shootout and again had to watch as Mané celebrated a major victory.
The teams missed the first four penalties of the shootout. Senegal captain Kalidou Koulibaly hit the crossbar with the first penalty. But Salah then blasted his penalty over the crossbar. Egypt missed three of its four penalties.
Ultimately, Mané was given the chance to seal a place at the World Cup in Qatar with Senegal’s fifth penalty. He looked at the referee, gave him a thumbs-up and then smashed it down the middle and celebrated in front of his home fans.
The game finished 1-0 for Senegal after extra time thanks to a fourth-minute own goal by Egypt’s Hamdi Fathi. That left it 1-1 on aggregate after Egypt’s narrow first-leg victory in Cairo on Friday.
It’s just the third time Senegal has qualified for the World Cup and the first time it has reached back-to-back tournaments after also making it to Russia in 2018. Before that, Senegal’s only other appearance was in 2002, when it surprised everyone to reach the quarterfinals on its World Cup debut.
Ghana earlier became the first team from Africa to qualify for this year’s World Cup with a 1-1 draw in Nigeria in the second leg of their tie to advance on away goals.
Thomas Partey scored the decisive goal for Ghana in the 10th minute in Abuja. William Troost-Ekong equalized for Nigeria with a penalty in the 22nd but Nigeria couldn’t use its home advantage to get a winner.
The teams drew 0-0 in Ghana in the first leg.
The result soothed the pain of a terrible African Cup of Nations campaign for Ghana, when the four-time African champion was eliminated in the group stage in Cameroon in January.
It also gave new coach and former Ghana player Otto Addo immediate success. He was brought in to lead the team when Milovan Rajevac was fired after that African Cup failure.
Ghana will return to the World Cup after missing out on the 2018 tournament.
Mané sends Senegal to World Cup, more penalty pain for Salah
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Mané sends Senegal to World Cup, more penalty pain for Salah
- Senegal’s victory, with Mané hitting the winning spot-kick, was a repeat of the African Cup of Nations final last month
Iva Jovic hopes to channel Novak Djokovic on Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships debut
- American teen sensation looking to build on strong start to 2026 season
Things have been developing fast for American teenager Iva Jovic.
This time last year, she was ranked 167 in the world and had just lost in the opening round of a Challenger in Cancun.
Today, she is perched nicely at a career-high No. 20 in the world rankings, with a WTA title under her belt (in Guadalajara last year) and an Australian Open quarterfinal appearance last month.
At 18, the Californian became the youngest American woman to reach the last-eight stage at Melbourne Park since Venus Williams in 1998.
Having started 2026 with an impressive 11-3 win-loss record (semis in Auckland, final in Hobart, quarters at the Australian Open), Jovic withdrew from the WTA tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Doha to take some much-needed time off and is now in the UAE ready to make her debut at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
We caught up with Jovic on Saturday ahead of her Dubai opener against former world No. 3 Maria Sakkari.
What does it mean for you to be coming to these tournaments now that you probably were watching in the past coming to this part of the world?
I mean, it’s so special. Obviously, it’s one thing to kind of play your first WTA events and get the feel for it, but it’s a different one to be in the tournaments every week and have your ranking at a place where you can play the full calendar. So that was the goal for me, and it’s pretty incredible to have had it all as it is now and to just be here.
Obviously, I want to win every match I play. I hate to lose. But I also try to remember that just being here is an incredible accomplishment and privilege. But Dubai has been so fun. I went to the mall yesterday. I went to the top of the Burj Khalifa. So I’ve already got to do a couple of things.
The culture and everything is very cool here. It’s my first time in this part of the world, so it’s very cool to see all these new things. I feel like I’m learning a lot, so much more to come.
I know you had to pull out of the last couple of tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Doha. I’m just wondering, post-Australia, what came into that decision?
Yeah, I think I just needed a little bit more time. I think I played the most matches out of anyone in the Australian swing. It was a lot, and I’m really happy with how it went. It was a great experience, and I won a lot, right? So that’s what you want. But I also needed to rest and train a little bit to just take care of my body. And now I’m feeling good and ready to go to be here in Dubai.
With Australia, now that you’ve had a little bit of time and space since then, what was the biggest takeaways from that? And did any of it take you by surprise?
I like to think that it’s surprising but not surprising, because obviously having great results and maybe some wins weren’t expected, but I also know how hard I’ve worked, and that good things tend to come when you put in the right work. So, surprised, but also not that surprised. Again, I think it’s one thing to have a couple of those good results, but for me the most important thing is consistency. So I want to establish myself as a player who’s going deep every single week.
You’ve got Maria Sakkari in your first round. She just made the semis in Doha. How do you look ahead to that match?
That’s definitely going to be a tough one. So thank you, Alex (Eala) for giving me a tough match. She pulled my name out (during the draw), but that’s okay. I’ll forgive her. But no, that’ll be a difficult one. Maria is a fighter. I played her in doubles, first meeting in singles. I mean I’m so new on the tour, still. I haven’t played a lot of these women. But she’s a competitor. She’s been around for a while and obviously making semis last week. She’s in top form. But, you know, again, you love the battle and you want the tough matches. So hopefully I can pull through.
You got to play the world number one in a Grand Slam quarterfinal. Didn’t go your way, but I’m wondering what did you take from that experience?
Yeah, I think that obviously you want to play the best just to win, yes, but even if you don’t, to just see where you stand. I think I’ve done a good job so far of learning from every loss, and I think that’s all it is. You learn from it, and it’s just fine margins. The differences aren’t that big.
It’s just little details that you need to work on that I’ve already been working on the past couple weeks, so hopefully that can show.
I know Novak Djokovic has been sending you tips. You’ve been in contact. He’s won this tournament a bunch of times. Are you going to perhaps be like, give me some tips for this Dubai court?
Oh, my God. Well, I hope … I don’t know if I’m brave enough to do that. I’m still a little nervous when I talk to him. He’s definitely my idol, but yeah, I see him at every corner. I’m like, how many times did this guy win the tournament? I see him on every screen. But just try to be like Novak. I’m going to keep it that simple.
