Senegal v Ivory Coast
The qualifiers for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations to be held in South Africa during January and February reach their climax this weekend. The qualifiers are into its second legs and the 15 aggregate winners will advance to the finals of the 16-nation tournament where they will be joined by the host country, South Africa. If the sides are level on aggregate after the second leg, the away goals rule is applied, and if still level, the tie proceeds directly to a penalty shootout (no extra time).
The biggest clash of the weekend sees giants Ivory Coast travel to Dakar to face Senegal. The Elephants recorded a 4-2 win in the first leg last month in what was an unlucky draw for both countries as all the other big teams avoided each other. Ivory Coast and Senegal qualified for the Cup of Nations held in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon earlier this year, beginning the tournament as first and third favourites respectively.
Ivory Coast came from behind twice to defeat Senegal in a match that lived up to its match-of-the-day billing. Spectacular goals from Dame Ndoye and Papiss Cissé gave Senegal the lead in each half only for Salomon Kalou and Gervinho to snatch equalisers before Didier Drogba and Max Gradel scored in the final 10 minutes of the high-tempo thriller.
Senegal’s coaching situation has been an issue of late. Amara Traore was ousted after a group-stage exit in the Cup of Nations despite vocal support from his players. He was supposed to be replaced by Pierre Lechantre, the French coach who led Cameroon to the Cup of Nations in 2000, but he failed to agree terms. Joseph Koto, who led Senegal at the last CHAN (the tournament for domestic-based players), was appointed as interim manager and has now been given a two-year permanent contract after leading Senegal to a win over Liberia and a draw in Uganda in World Cup qualifying. Expected to make the list after his five-year ban was prematurely lifted, former Senegal international and now Leeds United player El Hadji Diouf was not called up and no reasons were given by the coach, although a member of the football federation said last Thursday the body’s priority was to rejuvenate the outfit and not to seek momentary solutions. Thirteen of the 23 players were drawn from the U23 team that participated in the 2012 London Olympic football tournament. Newcastle’s striking pair of Demba Ba and Papiss Cissé are probably the biggest players in the squad at the moment and the two are very dangerous when given just an inch of space in the box.
Ivory Coast entered the last four Cup of Nations tournaments as favourites, but the closest they came to glory was finishing runners-up twice, and many consider 2013 as the last chance for Drogba and his star studded teammates. Forward Salomon Kalou who is now at Lille is injured and will miss this match. Newcastle midfielder Cheik Tiote makes his return as he was injured for the first leg. The Ivory Coast coach and former Auxerre and Parma midfielder Sabri Lamouchi, mystifyingly appointed to replace Francois Zahoui following the last Cup of Nations despite having no frontline coaching experience, is well aware of the expectations. “I know I have no experience as a coach, but my whole life has been made of football since I was 20 years and this is helping me today in my new career as a coach,” he said. “My objectives are very clear: to qualify the team for the 2013 Cup of Nations and do better than the previous edition, that is to say, win the title.” He began with a 2-0 home win over Tanzania and a 2-2 draw in Morocco in World Cup qualifying before a 1-1 friendly draw against Russia.
The Elephants will come into the match under much less pressure but as usual will hold nothing back. Senegal can almost match Ivory Coast’s ‘golden generation’ in attacking terms but fall short with the quality and experience defensively. Ivory Coast are tipped to score goals again and earn another victory.
