Senegal crashes out of AFCON2023: beaten 4:5 on penalties by Ivory Coast
After another grueling 139 minutes of football, Ivory Coast is progressing to the quarterfinals of the AFCON2023 competition after beating Senegal 4:5 on penalties. The match ended 1:1 at full time and after the extra 30 minutes of playing time to determine the winner. It progressed to the penalties shootout, with Senegal netting four of their kicks while Ivory Coast scored all five of their kicks to triumph in the round of 16 and progress to the quarterfinals.
Senegal started off the match well, and everyone thought it would be over for Ivory Coast within the first half of play as Senegal had opened scoring in the fourth minute through Habibou Mouhamadou. But as they say in football, always expect the unexpected. The Elephants came back strong, equalized in the 86th minute of play, and dragged the game to penalty shootouts.
Moussa Niakhate, the 27 years old Senegalese defender missed his penalty kick to give the Ivorians the victory. Recall that Ivory Coast had performed woefully in the group stage and only squeezed through to the round of 16 as the third place finishers with just three points from three matches. As a result most pundits had predicted that Senegal would win the match. Earlier on, the Senegalese coach, Aliou Cisse, had warned his side to go all out for the win and not consider the elephants of Ivory Coast as minions in the game. It seemed this advice was not well taken, as they are not out of the competition, though considered favorites pre-tournament to lift the cup.
