Senegal beginning to live up to billing after slow Africa Cup of Nations start

After a slow start to their Africa Cup of Nations campaign, Sadio Mane's Senegal are finally starting to justify their tag as pre-tournament favourites heading into Wednesday's semi-final against Burkina Faso.

The west African rivals meet in Yaounde with Aliou Cisse's team looking for the victory that would take them through to a second consecutive AFCON final, two and a half years on from their defeat to Algeria in Cairo.

The Lions of Teranga carry the pressure of being Africa's top-ranked national team and perhaps feel the weight of history more heavily too: Senegal have never been continental champions, while on the other side of the draw stand Egypt and Cameroon, the two most successful nations in the tournament's history with a combined 12 titles.

Senegal are fresh from seeing off a spirited Equatorial Guinea in Sunday's quarter-final, winning 3-1 in a game that showcased the strength in depth available to Cisse.

After they had been pegged back to 1-1 early in the second half, Cisse looked to his bench and sent on two Premier League players in Cheikhou Kouyate of Crystal Palace and Watford's Ismaila Sarr.

Both went on to score.

It was a first appearance at the tournament for the gifted winger Sarr, who Senegal brought to Cameroon despite him not having played for Watford since November due to injury.

"I insisted that he should be in the squad and we had to fight with Watford for two months to get him," Cisse said.

"He has worked hard to be fit and come back but I'm not sure if he is ready to start a game yet. We will go one step at a time with him."

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Senegal's AFCON campaign began in underwhelming fashion as they topped their group despite scoring just one goal, and that was a 97th-minute penalty by Mane to beat