Ivory Coast rose from the ashes of their disastrous Africa Cup of Nations to swung into the quarter finals
Ivory coast dumped out holders Senegal with a penalty shootout win after a 1:1 draw in 120 minutes of football action yesterday night to ensure only Egypt, back in 2010, remain the last defending champion to reach the quarter-finals.
The hosts scraped their way through into the knockout stages as one of the best third-placed teams and opened the game looking every bit the under-confident side that they are.
Senegal quickly noticed that and utilized their chances early on as they broke the deadlock after only four minutes into the match. Sadio Mané latched on to Ismail Jakobs’ throw-in and cut it back from the byline for Habib Diallo, who took the ball on his chest before swivelling and smashing it high into the roof of Yahia Fofana’s net. Mané was the provider for the opener, but just over five minutes later, the Senegal captain was perhaps fortunate to stay on the pitch receiving just a yellow card for a crunching tackle on Ibrahim Sangaré. In what could have been a red card but eventually wasn’t looked into.
Emerse Faé won 41 caps for the Ivory Coast and was drafted in mid-tournament as interim head coach following Jean-Louis Gasset’s resignation less than a week ago. He has not had long to implement his ideas but after the disastrous start, his side dominated possession for most of the first half. However, goalmouth action was at a premium at both ends as the early goal was not a precursor of things to come.
After being caught out in the opening salvos of the first period, Les Elephants were almost punished early in the second half, this time by
Ismaila Sarr, who forced Fofana into a fingertip save around the post. Just before the hour mark, Sarr thought he should have had a penalty after tangling with Odilon Kossounou, but after consultation with the VAR team, the referee waved those appeals away.
Needing a goal, the home fans were buoyed by the introduction of Sébastien Haller for the first time in this tournament, and the Borussia Dortmund forward’s arrival almost immediately caused a moment of panic in the Senegal defence. That led to a chance for fellow replacement Franck Kessié, who drew a good stop from Édouard Mendy before fellow substitute Nicolas Pépé attempted to lob Mendy. Just when it looked like it would tick over 300 minutes since Ivory Coast scored in this tournament and Senegal would squeeze through.
However things took a new turn when Pierre Atcho pointed to the spot on 85 minutes for a foul on Pépé, allowing Kessié to calmly slot past Mendy, sending the contest into Extra time.
The hosts dominated possession and territory as Senegal began to fade but the scores were still level after 1 20 minutes, sending the game to penalty shootout.
Alas it was the host Nation who progressed through into the quarter finals. Moussa Niakhaté’s miss for the defending Champions as his kick struck the post and Frank Kessié converted the winning penalty in the shootout to send his country through.
Ivory Coast will now face the winner of today’s encounter between Mali and Burkina in the quarter finals on Saturday.
