Can champions Senegal continue sterling run?

There is a popular video making rounds on social media in which Senegalese superstar Sadio Mane sends a message to friends and fellow superstars Nabi Keita of Guinea and Mohamed Salah of Egypt, during the early stage of group games in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations tournament.

“Unfortunately, I can’t play against two teams in final, so I have to play with one,” Mane jokingly says in the footage.

That’s how confident the Senegalese team in the Afcon 2024 in Cote d’Ivoire has been.  And the enthusiasm cuts across the entire Senegalese society. As the defending champions, the team occupied an impressive spot at the top of Group ‘C’, after winning all three of their group games against Gambia, Guinea and Cameroon, almost effortlessly.  

The Lions of Teranga, as they are officially called, became the only team in the tournament to win all of their group stage games, conceding only one goal in their three matches.

But their next match with the host Cote d’Ivoire in the last 16, which is slated for Monday (11pm) promises to be a tough one.

And for Cote d’Ivoire, it is like getting a second chance at life after a near death.  Its rather poor performance was sealed with a humiliating defeated in the hands of underdogs, Equatorial Guinea, 4-0.

At third place in their group, the Elephants had to wait for Zambia’s defeat by Morocco to be confirmed a spot in the knockout stage as one of the four best third-placed finishers.

The question in the mind of many football pundits now is whether Cote d’Ivoire can continue with their luck tonight or whether Senegal will continue with their sterling performance when the two clash in the Ivorian political city of Yamoussoukro.

Cote d’Ivoire are one of at least three countries, including Gambia and Ghana, which sacked their coaches due to poor performance at the tournament. 

Assistant coach Émerse Faé, a former Ivorian midfielder, was appointed interim coach after the dismissal of French Jean-Louis Gasset following the Equatorial Guinea defeat.

Every prediction of tonight’s match goes in favour of the Senegalese, but for the Ivorians, it is about redemption, after their humiliation in the hands of Equatorial Guinea.

“Anything is possible,” warns former Malian International Cedric Kante, who in an interview with the Senegalese media equated tonight’s match to a final in the Afcon.

Senegal’s comfortable progress emphasised that they will be difficult to beat. The team’s three straight victories is the first of its kind in the country’s history. 

They scored a total of eight goals in all three of its matches in the group stage, conceding only one goal.