Africa Cup of Nations defending champions Senegal were sent home after a penalty shootout defeat to hosts Ivory Coast on Monday. Franck Kessie scored the winning spot-kick having levelled the game from 12 yards in the final five minutes of normal time, after Habib Diallo’s early goal for the Lions.
As hosts, it has not been a straightforward AFCON for Ivory Coast and manager Jean-Louis Gasset was sacked after winning only one group game. However, they squeezed into the knockouts as the lowest-ranked team before appointing Emerse Fae to take charge of the rest of their tournament.
Senegal arrived as the Cup of Nations holders and many people’s favourites, a billing they had more than lived up to so far with a 100 per cent winning record in the group stage. However, they struggled to build on going ahead and were punished in the most dramatic manner possible.
FULL MATCH REPORT
Africa Cup of Nations holders Senegal crashed out at the hands of Ivory Coast in a last-16 penalty shootout on Monday night.
Habib Diallo fired Senegal ahead early on before Franck Kessie’s late penalty wrestled the AFCON hosts back into the match, and Moussa Niakhate was the only player to miss in the shootout to send the Lions home.
Brought in after the disastrous 4-0 defeat to Equatorial Guinea ended their group stage, Ivory Coast interim boss Emerse Fae took training for the first days of his tenure without knowing if Les Elephants were still in the tournament.
It was perhaps no surprise the hosts started slowly as Sadio Mane won a corner inside the first 40 seconds before providing the assist for Al-Shabab striker Diallo to rifle into the roof of the net after only four minutes.
The hosts improved after a long delay for Ibrahim Sangare to receive treatment for a studs-up challenge by Mane that only drew a yellow card.
Substantial periods of possession drew little reward however as Senegal’s stout five-man defence repelled everything with ease, even when the boundless energy of Seko Fofana helped Ivory Coast burst into the box several times.
There was nonetheless the sense that the defending AFCON champions had the ability to score at the flick of a switch, as shown shortly after the break when Kalidou Koulibaly’s quick free-kick sent Ismaila Sarr through on goal. Yahia Fofana tipped wide his low effort.
Sarr had a penalty claim denied before Ismail Jakobs and Lamine Camara missed the target as Senegal turned the pressure up despite Ivory Coast introducing Nicolas Pepe and Simon Adingra off the bench.
But it was Sebastien Haller who the home fans really wanted to see, and after an ankle injury delayed his arrival to the Cup of Nations the hosts’ poster boy finally appeared off the bench. Moments later, a superb double save by Edouard Mendy kept his clean sheet before Mane shot wide up the other end.
