Cameroon looked the more likely side to find the net in the 90 minutes after hitting the post twice.

Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui's looping header and Samuel Gouet's powerful long-range strike troubled The Pharaohs defence.

Egypt's star man Mohamed Salah was quiet for large parts of the match, which was played at Olembe Stadium in capital city Yaoundé.

The Liverpool forward had one chance which saw him fire a curling effort from outside the box just over the crossbar.

He also pounced on a loose back pass but could not make the opposition pay.

Opting not to step up in the penalty shootout, Salah relied on goalkeeper Gabal to provide the heroics.

The 33-year-old saved Harold Moukoudi and James Lea Siliki's spot kicks while Clinton N'Jie side-footed the ball wide from 12 yards to dump Cameroon out of their home tournament.

The result avenged Egypt's 2-1 loss in the 2017 final.

Egypt coach Carlos Queiroz was sent off in the 90^th minute for berating the referee while his assistant Wael Gomaa was cautioned too.

Although his absence did his team no harm, both the Portuguese coach and Gomaa are set to be missing from the touchline for the final.

Gomaa was also yellow-carded in the quarter-final fixture with Morocco.

Egypt also beat Ivory Coast on penalties, in the round-of-16.

Cameroon will now play Burkina Faso, who lost 3-1 to Senegal in the other semi-final, in the third-place playoff on Saturday (January 5).