It was probably the most anticipated round of 16 of this CAN 2023. Big favorites Senegal suffered a comeback, a miracle from the group stage: Ivory Coast. The Elephants, humiliated by Equatorial Guinea (0-4), were able to qualify as the best third thanks to Morocco’s victory over Zambia. In the meantime, Jean-Louis Gasset resigned and so Immers Fay stood opposite Aliou Cisse on the bench.
Ivory Coast wanted to redeem itself
For his first as interim, the former Nice U19 coach made strong choices with Gradle and Seri’s tenure. For its part, Senegal presented itself at the last minute without the injured Pep Guy. But that didn’t faze the Senegalese team who were impressively calm and quickly opened the scoring in the match. On good service from Sadio Mane, it was Habib Diallo who shot into Fofana’s cage (4th). We then expected another Ivorian defeat but then, Seko Fofana’s teammates put their feet on the ball without being dangerous.
So the host nation’s side needed to perform better to hope to get back into the game and equalize. Back from the locker room, the same scenario with the Senegalese team who fell back but calmly handled the very erratic attacks of Sekko Fofana or Diakite. So, Emers Fay, faced with his team’s helplessness, made two changes to try to resolve the match. Heller played his first minute while Casey, also substituted at kick-off, made his start.
Senegal eliminated
The former Barça midfielder was quick to shine with a fine header well deflected by Mendy (74th). Minutes later, it was Nicolas Pepe who forced the current Al-Ahly goalkeeper to shine once more. But the Ivorian efforts finally paid off in this match. It was Nicolas Pepe, who earned a logical penalty following Edouard Mendy’s big mistake. And it was Frank Casey who did not hesitate to convert and equalize (1-1, 86m). So the meeting continued with overtime!
In this extra time, we expect to see teams paralyzed by the challenge. But both defenses had gaps. Sadio Mane twice managed to capitalize but it fortunately came against a very alert Fofana (103rd and 105th). And with both teams goalless for another 30 minutes, it was decided in a penalty shootout. And to everyone’s surprise, on paper, Senegal lost this session. It was Niakhate who missed the Lions’ penalty. A penalty that allows the elephants to qualify for the next round!
Pub. The
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