Hosts Ivory Coast rose from the ashes of their disastrous Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) group stage to dump out holders Senegal and ensure that Egypt, back in 2010, remain the last defending champion to reach the quarter-finals.
The hosts scraped 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 could smell blood and broke the deadlock after only four minutes. 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.
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 Ismaïla 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, Pierre Atcho pointed to the spot on 85 minutes for a foul on Pėpė, allowing Kessié to calmly slot past Mendy, sending the contest to ET.
Serge Aurier is not renowned for his goalscoring but the Ivory Coast captain whistled a shot agonisingly wide of the post from range before Fofana smothered a close-range effort from Manė on the stroke of the ET break. The hosts dominated possession and territory as Senegal began to fade but the scores were still level after 120 minutes, sending the game to penalty kicks.
The hosts’ progression was sealed by Moussa Niakhaté’s miss as his kick struck the post while every other effort was perfect. Kessié took the game to ET with his spot-kick and dramatically converted the winning penalty in the shootout too. Ivory Coast will now face the winner of tomorrow’s tie between Mali and Burkina Faso on Saturday in the quarter-final.
