African Cup of Nations defending champions Senegal have been sent packing after a penalty shootout defeat to hosts Ivory Coast . Franck Kessie of Ivory Coast scored the winning spot-kick having levelled the game from 12 yards in the final five minutes of normal time, after Senegalese Habib Diallo’s early goal for the Lions making it 1-1 at full time.
The Ivorians have before now not shown an impressive outing so far in AFCON and manager Jean-Louis Gasset was sacked after winning only one group game. However, they squeezed into the knockouts as the lowest-ranked team before appointing Emerse Fae to take charge of the rest of their tournament.
The game which took place at the Charles Konan Banny Stadium in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast saw Senegal coming in as most people’s favorite having won all their matches in the group stage.
The Senegalese Moussa Niakhaté missed his penalty when the ball hits the goal post, while Ivory Coast’s Kessié scores his own thereby taking his team to the Quarterfinals making it a 5-4 win for the hosts.
Ivory Coast will now play either Mali or Burkina Faso in the quarter-finals, and suddenly, the route looks there for them to make a real run deep into the competition.
