by A week ago, Ivory Coast were beaten 4-0 by Equatorial Guinea. Now they are in the last eight of the African Cup of Nations after being eliminated by the champions. They are a team that has looked dead and buried several times since the start of the tournament – more so than when they went back-to-back with four minutes remaining on Monday – but somehow an army marches on zombie Sébastien Haller advanced to the quarter-finals against Mali or Burkina Faso. .
Senegal looked to be the best side in the group, until Haller was introduced. This was a classic habit of scoring an early goal and seeing the game out there. They didn’t, and so the curse continues: no defending champion has made it past Egypt in the quarter-finals since 2010. “We deserved to go to the quarter-finals,” said Senegal coach Aliou Cissé, who raised himself. disappointed yet proud – “but this is the game of football so we can’t complain”.
Related: The French journeyman coach is fast becoming an endangered species in Africa | Jonathan Wilson
For the Ivory Coast, a second-half collapse against Equatorial Guinea gave the impression that victory was over, the kind of capitulation that could stain the nation’s psyche for years, but they woke up a week later to find themselves inexplicably still in the competition. (Or maybe that’s not entirely unfathomable: if Zambia had scored one more goal from Avram Grant in any of their games, the Ivory Coast would not have gone into contention as the best team in the third place.)
However, they came to find that they had lost their coach, Jean Louis-Gasset from his job after the Equatoguinean humiliation. Another question is what a 70-year-old Frenchman, who had no previous experience of African football, was doing there in the first place. After rejecting a prudent approach by the French women’s team to sign Hervé Renard, who led them to the Cup of Nations in 2015, on loan, Ivory Coast have ended the temporary charge of the former Reading midfielder , Emerse Faé, who had never been before. He coached a game in his life. For a country that spent a reported $1bn on staging the tournament, it seemed careless.
The positive for Ivory Coast was that they had nothing to lose; no one expects anything from the undead. And maybe age means less for zombies; The pursuit of eternal youth is likely to be unfavorable to the recently relegated, which could explain the return to the starting line-up of 36-year-old Max Gradel for his first competitive start as one of five changes from victory to Equatorial Guinea.
The problem is that while the undead may be very good at attacking massive icy walls on the northern borders, or farmhouses in rural Pennsylvania, or pubs in Crouch End, they’re not great with crosses. It took just four minutes for a left-wing delivery from Sadio Mané to find Habib Diallo in the box, and he delivered a meaty shovel to the Ivory Coast’s eye, swiveling and belting a shot on the turn into the top corner.
There was a sense that the Ivorians were regaining some self-respect in what followed as they controlled possession. It might have been different if Mané’s lunging on Ibrahim Sangaré had resulted in a red card rather than a yellow but Senegal didn’t seem to be stuck in the pub’s cellar with an aging rifle and a supply bullets decreasing.
But the thing about the undead is that they are extremely difficult to finish. There was always the threat of a suppurating hand rising from the grave to seize an unsuspecting Senegalese ankle, but with Édouard Mendy calmly claiming a number of crosses, the bodies remained safely buried – until at least Haller, who his absence is through injury. such a problem for Ivory Coast, he came on for Jean-Philippe Krasso after 72 minutes.
Cape Verde captain Ryan Mendes converted a penalty two minutes from time to edge Mauritania 1-0 in the Africa Cup of Nations last-16 final on Monday and see the smallest country at the 24-team tournament advance to to the final quarter.
Mendes slotted home the penalty to give the Islanders a deserved win after they dominated another fast and furious affair.
Mauritania goalkeeper Babacar Niasse conceded the penalty, having to come off scrambling to clear a weak header from Yassin Cheikh El Welly and, in the process, bringing down substitute striker Gilson Benchimol.
Cape Verde, with a population of around 600,000, will meet either Morocco or South Africa in the last eight on Saturday. Reuters
Almost immediately Mendy was called into two saves but when Haller’s pass then released Nicolas Pépé, he was brought down by the keeper. This was what the Ivory Coast was missing; this was what they are capable of. “We had to recover our skills as warriors,” said Faé. Franck Kessié scored from the spot and Senegal, four minutes from the quarter final, suddenly found that the battle was not won: the calf had raised the clammy fingers of the boiler and dragged them to a shot.
Once they were in their grip, they couldn’t shake them. Nottingham Forest’s Moussa Niakhaté hit the post with his penalty, leaving Kessié to convert the decisive kick. Senegal’s title defense was over and the Ivorians are probably not dead but dancing in disbelieving celebration.
