The hosts, Ivory Coast, surprised Senegal in the African Cup of Nations (CAN) this Monday, January 29, eliminating the current champions on penalties in the round of 16. With this, Ivory Coast keeps their hopes of winning the title at home alive.
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A week ago it seemed that the Ivorians were destined for a humiliating elimination in the group stage of their own African Cup of Nations (CAN), but now they are in the quarter-finals after beating Senegal 5-4 on penalties after a tie that ended 1-1 in extra time.
The Elephants entered the knockout stage with the worst record of the four best third-place finishers to advance, after ending the first round with a humiliating 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea, their heaviest defeat at home.
They said goodbye to veteran French coach Jean-Louis Gasset and tried, unsuccessfully, to hire former coach Hervé Renard on a short-term contract.
Ivory Coast is humiliated in its own country by Equatorial Guinea, suffering the worst defeat in its history at home and the worst defeat by a host team in the history of the CAN.
They finish third in the group and throw out the coach, thinking that they are already eliminated.
Of…
— MisterChip (Alexis) (@2010MisterChip) January 29, 2024
But instead, former player Emerse Faé was appointed on an interim basis, hoping to rally the shell-shocked team ahead of a tough tie against the reigning champions.
It looked like a difficult night for Côte d'Ivoire in Yamoussoukro as Senegal took the lead in the fourth minute when Habib Diallo brought down Sadio Mané's cross from the left and finished decisively.
Mané then escaped with a yellow card for a dangerous challenge on Ibrahim Sangaré soon after, although Senegal also felt unwell at the start of the second half.
Ismaila Sarr fell in the area in a tangle of legs with Odilon Kossounou, but no penalty was awarded and the referee did not come over to review the incident on the pitch monitor.
Kessie, the hero
Instead, it was the Ivorians who won a late penalty after a VAR review showed Nicolas Pépé was brought down by Senegalese goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
Franck Kessié of the Saudi club Al Ahli, who was left on the bench for the kick-off, converted the penalty to force extra time. With no more goals, everything went to penalties, and the Senegalese Moussa Niakhaté was the only player who missed, as his shot hit the post.
Kessié then scored the decisive shot to take Ivory Coast into a round of 16 tie against either Mali or Burkina Faso in the central city of Bouaké on Saturday. Neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso meet in the round of 16 on Tuesday in the northern city of Korhogo.
“We feel a lot of emotion,” Ivory Coast forward Sebastien Haller told the Plus Afrique channel. “The last few days have not been easy, but we had to believe in ourselves.”
Senegal exit having been the only team to win all three matches during the group stage, and their elimination means no defending champion has made it past the first knockout round of a Nations Cup since Egypt won a third consecutive title in 2010.
Streak ends in Mauritania
Earlier, Cape Verde won a CAN tie for the first time in their history, when a late Ryan Mendes penalty gave them a 1-0 victory over Mauritania in Abidjan.
The tie was heading into extra time after Cape Verde won a penalty, when substitute Gilson Tavares Benchimol was brought down in the box by Mauritania goalkeeper Babacar Niasse.
Captain Mendes scored with two minutes left in the 90 minutes to break the resistance of a Mauritanian team that appeared for the first time in the knockout phase.
Cape Verde will advance to the quarterfinals on Saturday in Yamoussoukro against Morocco or South Africa, who will meet in the round of 16 on Tuesday in San Pedro.
The small island nation in the Atlantic Ocean had exited its group in two of its three previous CAN appearances, but had never before won a tie.
“We are proud of everything we have done so far. We always tried to win the game and we deserved it,” said Cape Verde coach Pedro 'Bubista' Brito, who believes his team can go even further in the tournament.
“We have our goal, which from day one has been to reach the semifinals.
“We're one step away from that now and we're going to move forward, obviously staying humble and respecting our opponents, but we believe. That's our focus and we're going to try to get there.”
Originally published in the French version, with AFP
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