Mohamed Salah plays down title hopes after leading Egypt to AFCON semi-finals

Omar Marmoush opened the scoring for the Pharaohs after just four minutes at Stade Adrar on Saturday and Ramy Rabia added a second just past the half hour mark.

An Ahmed Abou El Fotouh own-goal on 40 minutes briefly reduced the deficit but Mohamed Salah restored the two-goal advantage with his effort on 52 minutes, as Guela Doue ensured a tense finish to the match when he got on the scoresheet with 17 minutes to play.

Egypt will next face African powerhouse Senegal at Grand Stade de Tanger on Wednesday, with the winner progressing to the AFCON final alongside one of Nigeria or hosts Morocco.

Salah praised a perfect performance against the Ivorians but says they face another stiff test, against a quality Senegal team that overcame Mali in their quarter-final clash.

"It was a ​perfect win, but as I said before, we are fighting for our country," ‍Salah told CAFOnline.

"Hopefully we go through the next game as well, it's against ‍a tough opponent, ‌but we will give our best. 

“We are fighting so hard, you can see the players, nobody is holding anything. We are just carrying on.”

Salah added that he expects even tougher games to comes because unlike the other teams in the semis, most of their players play domestically.

"Most of our national team players play in ⁠the domestic league, it's not to belittle ‌them, but we are trying our best because we love our country," he explained on beIN Sports.

"The game (against Senegal) will be difficult, they have a squad that plays at a ⁠high level in Europe, but I hope we ​can achieve victory."