With a strong fifth shot in the penalty shootout, Franck Kessie confirmed the qualification of Ivory Coast for the quarterfinals of the African Cup it organized, after defeating Senegal, the current champion, this Monday (4-5) in a round of 16 duel ended. with a draw (1-1) after extra time.
A result that seemed impossible due to the turmoil within the host team, who did not hesitate to fire coach Jean-Louis Gasset after the end of the group stage.
An event that forced Gasset’s assistant and coach of the under-23 team, Faé Emerse, to temporarily take over the direction of the team, which could not have had a more complicated debut.
If the ‘elephants’ came to the event immersed in a deep crisis, witnessed by the overwhelming 4-0 where the Ivorian team fell to Equatorial Guinea on the last day of the first stage, the opposite happened in the case of Senegal , launched after defeating Gambia (3-0), Cameroon (3-1) and Guinea (2-0) in its first three games.
Immaculate streak that cannot be understood without the trident that makes up the attack of the ‘lion of Terenga’ Ismaila Sarr, Olympique de Marseille player, Habib Diallo and Sadio Mané, former Liverpool and Bayern Munich player and current teammate of Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Al – Nassr.
A Sadio Mané gifted the Senegalese team’s first goal six minutes in with a drive down the left wing that ended with a sensational pass that Habib Diallo didn’t waste to make it 1-0.
A result that seemed to be enough for Aliou Cissé’s team, who hardly created more clear scoring opportunities in the first half, allowing the Ivory Coast to gain more and more confidence.
An incident that did not take long to transfer to the field in the second half where the locals had the occasional good chance through the boot of Serge Aurier to level the contest.
A tie finally arrived in the 86th minute with a penalty awarded by goalkeeper Edouard Mendy to Nicolas Pepé that was initially not signaled by the referee, who changed his decision after reviewing the video images.
A maximum penalty Frank Kessie managed to convert at 1-1 took the match into extra time where Aurier, for Ivory Coast, and Sané, for Senegal, had chances to avoid penalty shootout.
However, the move to the quarterfinals will be decided from eleven meters, a luck in which the Ivory Coast, champion in 1992 and 2015, is more successful than the Senegalese team.
Indeed, the ‘elephants’ did not miss any of the five shots they attempted, while the ‘lions of Terenga’ missed out on retaining the title they won three years ago in Cameroon, after seeing how Moussa Niakhate in the post. third penalty for the Senegalese team.
A defeat that allowed Ivory Coast, a team that seemed hopeless just a few days ago, to advance to the quarterfinals where the hosts will face the winner of the clash between Mali and Burkina Faso.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
