Senegal will face fellow heavyweights Ivory Coast in the Round of 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations. The victor of this match between the top teams in Africa’s football league advances to the quarterfinals. They will play either Burkina Faso or Mali, who play on Tuesday night in Korhogo.
Preview (Senegal vs. Ivory Coast)
Senegal is just three victories away from defending their AFCON championship. They defeated the Ivory Coast 1-0 at the CAF African Nations Championship a little over a year ago. They will be hoping for a repeat of that victory. The Lions of Teranga were the only side in the competition to win all three group-stage matches. Surprise packages Equatorial Guinea and Cape Verde grabbed most of the attention throughout the group rounds. They defeated Gambia 3-0 in the opening match and then defeated Cameroon 3-1 in the second match. Senegal finished their round-robin campaign with a 2-0 victory over Guinea.
The Lions of Teranga have the joint-best defensive record in the competition with only one goal allowed in the group stages. That one goal was also the only one they gave up in their previous seven games across all competitions. The team led by Aliou Cisse will now try to win this tournament four times in a row, a feat last accomplished by Algeria when they won the trophy in the 2019 edition. In the meantime, Ivory Coast’s AFCON performance has steadily declined, and they are only still competing because of Ghana’s appalling performance, which enabled them to secure the final third-place team qualification berth.
The Elephants had a strong start to the competition, defeating Guinea-Bissau 2-0 in the first round. However, they were unable to build on that victory and lost to Nigeria in the second round. The Ivory Coast Football Federation decided to fire Jean-Louis Gasset as manager.
Team News
In Senegal’s 2-0 victory over Guinea, Marseille’s Pierre Gueye was forced to leave the game due to an injury. The midfield player was also missing from practice earlier in the week, raising questions about his participation in this game. Due to a thigh injury, attacker Abdullah Sima will not be able to play for the duration of the campaign. As a result, Strasbourg striker Habib Diallo is expected to start at the front of the line, with Sadio Mane and Ismaila Sarr following.
Changes are anticipated for the hosts in this game under the new coach, but they most likely won’t include Sebastian Haller, who hasn’t played in this competition yet because of an ankle injury. After being left off as an unused substitute against Equatorial Guinea, Serge Aurier will be looking to get back into the starting lineup, while Nicolas Pepe may be benched following a lackluster performance in the previous game that raised doubts about his level of fitness having recently returned from injury.
Senegal 2-0 Ivory Coast
For more football previews, click here
