Egypt 2 Senegal 1:  Hosts Egypt reached the African Nations Cup final tonight but Senegal will have every reason to feel robbed after being denied a certain penalty in the dying minutes.

The drama in Cairo appeared to have peaked when Amr Zaki scored Egypt's second with 10 minutes left after coming on to replace Mido, with the Tottenham striker reacting furiously to being taken off by coach Hassan Shehata.

Mido was forced to put his indignation to one side as Zaki proved his coach right by heading in a cross by Mohamed Aboutraika, but Senegal should have been awarded a penalty in the last minute of normal time when Diomansy Kamara was tripped in the area by Ibrahim Said.

Cameroon referee Divine Evehe opted not to risk the wrath of the huge Cairo crowd and gave nothing, not even booking Kamara for diving, as the Pharaohs set up a final clash with Ivory Coast on Friday.

Egypt captain Ahmed Hassan converted a 37th minute penalty, Senegal striker Mamadou Niang headed a 52nd minute equaliser but Zaki got the 81st minute winner.

Striker Didier Drogba steered Ivory Coast to the final with the only goal of the semi-final against Nigeria today.

Drogba beat the offside trap to run on to a deep pass from Kolo Toure two minutes into the second half and hit the ball through the legs of Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.

The Ivorians' opponents in Friday's final will be known later this evening when hosts Egypt meet Senegal in Cairo.

Christian Koffi Ndri threatened early with a shot on the Nigerian goal in the opening two minutes and Drogba had a free kick well stopped by Enyeama six minutes later.

Joseph Yobo's header from a corner was the closest Nigeria came to their opponent's goal in a tedious first half, when he climbed above Drogba but missed the target.

At the other end, the Everton defender did well to keep the Chelsea attacker under wraps in the first 45 minutes.

Nigeria brought on Jay-Jay Okocha after conceding the goal and he twice went close from free kicks.

But the Bolton player could not find any decisive passes for a Nigerian attack who were generally starved of ball and found the Ivorian centre back pairing of Toure and Abdoulaye Meite hard to penetrate.