Suez (Egypt) (AFP)
Do not bury the Elephants! Long dominated, Ivory Coast overthrew Mali (1-0) thanks to Wilfried Zaha, Monday in the 8th of CAN in Suez, to afford a shock against Algeria in the quarter.
Substitute in the first two games, then tenured under pressure from the media and popular, Zaha is one of the faces of this team that gropes a lot since the beginning of the tournament. But he also embodies his resistance to any test.
The striker Crystal Palace took advantage of an error Youssouf Koné to score (76) and offer his country a qualification that looks more like a heist than a demonstration of his omnipotence.
All the opposite of Algeria, his next opponent Thursday, impresses for three weeks. But if it chose the steep path, Côte d'Ivoire continues to advance, helped by its experience of this kind of appointment, which missed the young generation Ivorian.
The Elephants went to the final two of the last three times that they reached the group phase, with a title in 2015. Mali, him, counts among its holders only one survivor of his epic of 2013, concluded by a bronze medal defender Molla Wagué.
- Mali without realism -
If she chose the most beautiful stadium of the tournament, next to the sea, to go out, the team of Mohamed Magassouba did not expect to be eliminated so early. She also showed the talent that propelled her to the top spot of her group, like winger Moussa Djenepo, untenable.
Femdom, he will have missed realism. Star of the squad, the striker Moussa Marega will regret his big missed opportunity late in the first period (42). He could also equalize at the very end of the match, without an acrobatic intervention of Serey Dié to steal the ball (90).
The courage of the center of Neuchâtel on this action says a lot about the solidarity of the Ivorian team, which never folded under the onslaught of Mali. Nicolas Pépé was expected, but goalkeeper Sylvain Gbohouo was the most valuable in this success (19, 92).
The rising star of African football has again disappointed, replaced in the 68th minute. But the comparison with his glorious elder Didier Drogba still stands. The former Chelsea star reached the final in Egypt for her first CAN. The Lille is still in the running to do as well.
? 2019 AFP