Senegal beats Egypt for WC berth with aid of fans with laser pointers

Egypt's Mohamed Salah. dpa

Senegal beats Egypt for spot in World Cup with the aid of fans with laser pointers

By Adam Stites | Last updated 3/29/22

Less than two months after Senegal beat Egypt in penalty kicks in the AFCON final to become African champions, Senegal did it again in a World Cup qualifier Tuesday. This time came with controversy, though, as an egregious abuse of laser pointers by fans seemed to play a role in Egypt's demise.

Senegal lost 1-0 to Egypt on Friday, but leveled the aggregate at 1-1 just a few minutes into the match Tuesday when a corner kick resulted in an own goal. That was the last goal of the match and eventually penalty kicks were required to decide the outcome.

Egypt made only one of its four penalties as the laser pointers came out in full force to help Senegal.

I mean, just look at this. Salah sails his penalty over… and surely anybody would, given the lasers.

Mane scores, Senegal wins the shootout, Egypt out of the World Cup pic.twitter.com/tgHmCmW8uu
— Henry Bushnell (@HenryBushnell) March 29, 2022

Sadio Mané, who plays for Liverpool of the Premier League, made the game-winning penalty to send Senegal to its third ever World Cup. In 2018, the team failed to advance out of the group stage after narrowly losing a "fair play" tiebreaker with Japan.

The result also means that Egypt, led by Mané's Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah, will miss the World Cup.

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