AFCON
Senegal labour to edge Zimbabwe through Mane’s late penalty
A late penalty from talisman Sadio Mane helped Senegal beat Zimbabwe 1-0 in their opening Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon match at the Kouekong Stadium in Baffoussam.
The Teranga Lions started the better side in Baffoussam with Bouna Sarr and Sadio Mane pulling the strings for Aliou Cisse’s side.
The duo combined for the first real opening of the match inside the first minute. Mane played Sarr through but his effort failed to hit the target.
Keita Balde scuffed his effort wide from a clever Sadio Mane neat Mane pass, the Liverpool striker turned away from two defenders to set Balde free.
The Teranga Lions dominated possession in the early exchanges through Gana Gueye whose ability to open the play found Fode Ballo on the left channel but his effort was wayward.
The Warriors captain Knowledge Musona tried his luck from distance but his ambitious shot failed to trouble Senegal Seny Dieng. Zimbabwe survived a scare midway through the first half when Sarr latched on to Sadio Mane’s through ball before seeing his shot agonizingly wide off the post.
Mane missed a good chance to break the deadlock when played through with only the keeper to beat the former Generation Foot winger fired straight at the brilliant Petros Mhari.
A swift Senegal counter attack frees Mane who played in Gana Gueye who failed to hit the target with the goal at his mercy.
Defenders Pape Cisse and Abdou Diallo both headed wide from a set plays as Senegal look for the breakthrough against the resilient Warriors of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe were unlucky not to open the score 15 minutes for time in the highly charged match Baffoussam when Teenage Lingani weak effort was saved by Seny Dieng.
Aliou Cisse’s team won a late penalty when substitute Pape Gueye’s effort came off the arm of defender Kelvin Wilbert in stoppage time and star man Sadio Mane fired in the winner from the spot.
The victory sends Senegal to the summit of the Group B ahead of Guinea’s encounter with Malawi later.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
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