Ivory Coast have booked their place in the quarter-final of 2023 AFCON after seeing off defending champions Senegal in a heated round 16 clash, MySportDab reports.
The two sides crossed swords at the back of contradictory group stage fortunes with Senegal tipped to easily overrun the Elephants.
The Teranga Lions emerged as the best team in the group stages of the tournament after finishing top of their group with maximum 9 points.
Conversely, Cote D’Ivoire sneaked into the knockout of the tournament among the four best third-placed teams in the group stages, thanks to Morocco’s win over Zambia in their final group game.
Coming on against the star-studded Senegalese side at the back of a 4-0 mauling by Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast we’re given a chance but ended up proving a point against all odds.
Senegal started with a bang. Diallo fired the Teranga Lions into the lead just 4 minutes into the game. Diallo’s strike happened to be the only goal of the match throughout the first half as both sides failed to find the back of the net again.
Ivory Coast put up a more impressive performance in the second half but it was still a deadlock close to Senegal’s defense.
The Elephants continued to push for a leveler until the 85th minute when Franck Kessie converted a late spot-kick to score the equaliser.
Kessie’s equaliser forced the game into extra time but the tie could not broken. After 120 minutes, the match was decided on penalties. Niakhate missed his spot-kick while the hosts converted all their penalties to knock out the champions and book a place in the quarter-final of the tournament.
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