Match report and roundup
Updated
Full-time: Senegal 0-1 Algeria
Senegal’s haplessness against Algeria continues, as they fall to another defeat to their bogey team. They can point to bad luck - Mané should have been given a penalty, for one - and also to bad finishing - Diagne missed a sitter - but they must also acknowledge that they lacked ideas and were terribly sloppy at times. Algeria, after looking at risk of being dominated early on, were a little more tidy and were managed the game better. They top the group and will mosey on in to the last 16. Senegal need a result against Kenya in their final group game.
Updated
90+3 min: Wagué wins a corner and a final chance for Senegal, perhaps. Saivet delivers and Mané, falling backwards, arches his back to steer a header ... over the bar.
Algeria substitution: Abeid on, Bennacer off.
90 min: The fourth official signals that there will be at least three minutes injury time. Let’s see if the ref agrees with that ...
Updated
89 min: Bounedjah tries to lear a freekick from the right but ends up booting just over his own bar! That’s a corner to Senegal and a mighty relief to Bounedjah, who for a moment thought he’d fired the ball into his own net.
88 min: Mendy dashes to the edge of the box to snaffle the ball at the feet of Mahrez. But then he spills it! Several teammates rush to his rescue before any Algerian can take advantage.
87 min: Senegal keep banging their heads against a brick wall.
Senegal substitution: Saivet on, Alfred Ndiaye off.
Algeria substitution: Delort on, Belaili off.
85 min: Mané scoops a clever pass over a defender and into the path of the underlapping Sabaly. But Benlamri rushes across to snuff out the danger in the box.
83 min:Kouyaté loses concentration and control, gifting a corner to Algeria. Mendy punches it to safety.
81 min: Algeria are all about protecting their lead now, and they’re doing it well. Senegal have not found enough imagination to plot a way through.
78 min: Ndiaye unloads a ferocious shot through a load of bodies from the edge of the area. M’bolhi does well to bat it away but only as far as Diagne, who’s seven yards out - and heads wide!
Updated
75 min: Another good tackle in the box by Mandi on Mane, at the expense of a corner. Which brings another appalling setpicee delivery from Senegal.
73 min: Thioub drifts a useful cross over the right. Guedioura heads it over his own bar for a corner. At least that’s what Senegal thought. It turns out the referee has awarded a free out for ... some reason.
Updated
Senegal substitution: Diagne on, Diatta off.
71 min: Two players (Guedioura and Bensebaini) clatter into Mané in the Algerian box. “Play on”, signals the ref, to widespread disbelief! The Algerians are not so miffed with him now.
Updated
69 min: Moment after Mané goes on a promising run down one end, Mahrez embarks on a better one at the other, twisting his way past two players before firing a yard wide from 20 yards.
68 min: Mané scythed down by a late challenge by Benlamri. Senegal’s players converge on the ref to point out that the player has already been booked, but the ref feels no need to show another yellow. Lucky Benlamri.
Updated
66 min: Algeria lose the ball in Senegalese territory. Thioub strides clear on the counter-attack ... until he treads on the ball and sends it backwards, then crashes into a teammates. Save that one for the highlights reel, please.
65 min: Guedioura nuts a Mané corner to safety.
63 min: Diatta runs straight out of play with the ball. Senegal have been awful in this half, clunky with the ball and bereft of cohesion.
Senegal substitution: Thioub on, Baldé off. I don’t know what Niang has done to justify remaining on the pitch.
62 min: Badou Ndiaye battles his way into the box but then blazes a useless shot into the stands.
60 min: Senegal are caught overplaying in their own half, and Mahrez leads the attempt to punish them. He plays in Bounedjah, who shoots on the run from the right-hand side of the box. It skids wide of the far post.
Updated
58 min: Mané gets up a gallop and hurtles past two defenders down the left and carries on in to the box. Mandi scampers across and slides in to poke the ball of his feet to concede a corner. A perfectly timed tackle!
55 min: Bensebaini takes a swipe at bouncing ball but misses completely and ends up whacking Baldé. That’s another freekick, but no booking.
53 min: Baldé goes to ground after winning the ball of Bensebaini. Freekick to Algeria, apparently. The ref obviously has a much better view than me, or at least a very different one. The freekick is launched into the box and cleared.
51 min: Koulibaly steps in to take the ball off Atal, who can’t stop running and carries on straight into the defender’s knee. That’s an accidental but very sore collision. For a moment Koulibaly looks like he might be seriously hurt, but within 20 seconds he’s on his feet and making another clearance. He’s a superb centreback.
GOAL! Senegal 0-1 Algeria (Belaili 49)
That’s a super striker from the edge of the box after a pull-back from Feghouli! The shot flew through a couple of bodies and straight into the centre of the goal, with the keeper beaten motionless, partly unsighted and beaten by the power. And the attack started when Senegal gave the ball away in midfield. They’ve got to buck up their ideas now!
48 min: Bennacer screams down the left on the counter-attack. He finds Bounedjah with a well-aimed pass into the centre. THe striker helps it on to Feghouli, whose shot is blocked.
47 min: Mané whacks in to Feghouli in the centre circle and both players are hurt. Especially Feghouli when he realises that the ref has given the freekick to Senegal!
46 min: No substitutions during the break. Algeria get the second half under way. 35 seconds elapse before the ref has to blow his whistle for another foul. So much for a new half bringing a new approach ...
Apparently access to the stadium was not smooth before kickoff. This is now way to run a tournament:
3 minutes before kick off.. this is what happens when the Algerians lose patience.. 🤣 #TotalAFCON2019 pic.twitter.com/H2EOVo9dP3
— Abdul Musa - عبدالقادر موسى (@PepJunior1) June 27, 2019
Half-time: Senegal 0-0 Algeria
A tense and even contest has wavered between moments of high quality and long stretches of niggly duelling. Senegal started strongly but Algeria have come back at them hard and created the better chances, though not many. The way things are going it’s hard to say which we’re more likely to see first: a goal or a red card.
45+1 min: Feghouli pounces on a mistake by Kouyaté near the centre circle and suddenly Bounedjah is dashing into the right-hand side of the box. But with Koulibaly closing on him, he scuffs his shot, sending it wide of the far post.
45 min: Mahrez’s delivery from the freekick is good. Bounedjah jumps well between two defenders but can’t get over the ball enough to keep his header down. It misses the target by a couple of yards. That’s a pity for a striker who has been a pain in the Senegalese backline all match.
44 min: Belaili charges down an attempted clearance by Wagué, who fouls him in his eagerness to atone. That gives Algeria a freekick in a useful crossing position on the left.
43 min: The game has degenerated into a series of fouls and square-ups. It’s gripping in more ways than one.
40 min: Wagué wins the ball fairly on half-way. Or did he? Belaili went down screaming in agony and gets a freekick. Without the benefit of a replay, I can’t say for sure who was wrong or right there. That thing I said beforehand about players making it easy for the ref? They’re not doing that.
39 min: Mahrez curls a dangerous corner towards the far post. Mendy does well to catch it safely under pressure. And then assorted players jostle angrily with each other. There’s a definite obstreperousness creeping into this game, as well as some dramatic falling by various players. You get the feeling there’s going to be at least one red card and/or a good ol’ donnybrook.
37 min: Baldé booked for tugging back Atal as the full-back raced down the line. For a moment it looked like the ref wasn’t going to dish out any punishment, and Algerians hared towards him to protest. They seem to think the ref needs constant reminders to do his job to their satisfaction, possibly for reasons I indicated below before kickoff.
35 min: Mendy hasn’t got to grips with Bounedjah’s liveliness up front. The keeper dawdles with the ball at his feet on the edge of his area and then suddenly realises the striker is racing towards him. His panicked clearance is partly charged down but, mercifully for Mendy, it rebounds off the striker and into touch.
32 min: This contest has ebbed and flowed nicely. Senegal looked ominously superior for the first 20 minutes but Algeria have seized the upperhand in the last 10 or so. The quality is high and the suspense higher.
29 min: Bounedjah does well again to get on the end of a chipped pass into the box. He achieves the impressive feat of holding ff Koulibaly before nudging the ball back to Belaili. Two defender descend immediately on the midfielder and nick the ball off him.
27 min: Mendy rushes off his line to claim a pass played from a quick freekick into the box, but Bounedjah gets to it before him and hooks it over him with a lovely piece of improvisation. But when he runs around to retrieve it with a view to tapping it into the net, he finds that Koulibaly has beaten him to it and cleared!
25 min: Baldé donks a terrible freekick straight into the wall.
24 min: Niang finds Mané with a canny pass behind Atal, who lunges for it but appears to catch the Liverpool player. The ref awards the freekick and is immediately surrounded by angry Algerians, who are seemingly convinced that the defender didn’t touch Mané. The replay shows that there was indeed contact and the challenge was ropey enough to knock Mané off balance.
22 min: You can feel the anticipation as Mané steps up to take the freekick ... and hear the disappointment when he sends it eight yards over the bar.
19 min: Benlamri booked for launching himself into a wild tackle on Badou Ndiaye in the D outside the Algerian box. A thoroughly deserved card and a chance for Senegal to open the scoring.
16 min: Belaili curls a low freekick around the wall. Mendy gets down to save comfortably.
15 min: Algeria relieve the pressure by pouncing on a slack pass in midfield. Bounedjah lets fly from 25 yards and the ball flies into the arm of Kouyate. Freekick to Alger just outside the D, and a harsh booking for Kouyate. In other news, Madagascar notched their first ever victory at the Africa Cup of Nations today. Rad all about it!
13 min: Senegal dart and probe all around the Algerian box, but the men in green hold firm. Eventually Diatta pops a rather hopeful cross towards the far post, where no one is waiting for it.
10 min: Senegal have made the stronger start. They’re passing and running with the ball well and in synch with each other and currently look, as expected, better individually and collectively than their opponents. Mané looks dangerous every time he gets the ball.
8 min: Algeria are grateful to the referee: he gives them a free after Niang went down at the edge of the box under pressure from Guedioura. Diatta picked up the loose ball and scampered into the area before the ref blew.
7 min: Mahrez skips into the right-hand side of the Senegalese box but is confronted by two defenders and forced back out. And then he loses the ball. That brings yelps of glee from the Senegalese fans, all the more so when Mané takes up the ball and begins running towards the Algerian half.
5 min: Mané thrills the crowd and terrifies the Algerian defence with his first involvement. He lulls Atal into a false sense of security down the left and then suddenly zooms past him and into the box before pulling the ball back towards the penalty spot. Feghouli does well to block Alfred Ndiaye’s shot.
3 min: Each side has a healthy respect for the other so no one’s taking any rash chances at this early stage. Instead it’s all about trying to build steadily. Both have had bouts of passing the ball around but neither has found any kind of opening so far.
1 min: We have kickoff! Senegal begin stroking the ball around to a soundtrack provided by Algerian fans, who seem to be far more numerous in the stadium.
Algeria are wearing their smooth green kit; Senegal are all in white and will take kickoff momentarily.
As the teams line up in the tunnel, Cheikou Kouyaté and Sofiane Feghouli give each other warm hugs and share a chuckle about something. West Ham, surely?
Updated
It’s not exactly a sell-out in Cairo’s 30 June Stadium. Generously speaking, it’s about 50% full or, to put it another way, at least 50% empty. But the people who have turned up seem to be in the mood to jubilate and that counts for a lot, in fairness. Still, you’d think the organisers would do something to get more people in, such as distributing free tickets to kids or particularly gallant citizens.
Updated
There has been unhappy muttering in Algeria about the appointment of Janny Sikazwe as today’s referee. The Zambian was provisionally suspended on suspicion of corruption last November after complaints about his handling of the African Champions League semi-final between Espérance de Tunis and Primeiro de Agosto. But Fifa cleared him two months later on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence against him. Algerian fans, however, have had a dim view of him since long before any of that owing to two hotly debated penalties he awarded against their team during a World Cup qualifier against Burkina Faso in 2014. So let’s hope the players make it easy for the ref today, eh.
Updated
Teams
Belmadi was evidently satisfied with his team’s performance during their 2-0 win over Kenya in the opening game because he’s sent out the same XI again. Cissé, meanwhile, has only made the two essential changes: Mané returns for the injured Sarr, and Ndiaye replaces Gueye.
Senegal: Mendy; Wagué, Koulibaly, Kouyaté, Sabaly; A. Ndiaye, Pape A. Ndiaye; Diatta, Mané;- Baldé, Niang
Subs: Diallo, Ciss, Cissé, Gueye, Sané, Konaté, Saivet, Sarr, Diagne, Thioub, Gassama, Gomis
Algeria: M’bolhi; Atal, Bensebaini, Benlamri, Mandi; Guedioura, Feghouli, Bennacer; Mahrez, Belaili, Bounedjah.
Subs: Doukha, Tahrat, Halliche, Fares, Brahimi, Ounas, Slimani, Boudaoui, Delort, Oukidja, Zeffane, Abeid
Referee: J Sikazwe (Zambia)
Updated
Preamble
Hello and welcome to what could be the best match of the tournament so far – and there’s already been plenty of entertainment. Senegal and Algeria are among the favourites for outright glory and both come into this clash on the back of solid victories in their opening games and, in the case of Senegal, reinforced by Sadio Mané, who missed the win over Tanzania through suspension. If either team prevails here today, they will be guaranteed a place in the next round and will probably leap to the top of the favourites table. Call it Mané v Mahrez if you want, but these teams have lots of class beyond their star attractions.
Granted, Mané’s return is slightly offset by the losses of Ismaila Sarr and Idrissa Gueye but Senegal probably have enough quality to overcome that. Keita Baldé is in hot form and if Krépin Diatta performs as well today as he did in the first match, there’ll be talk of a new star on the rise. The Lions of Teranga will certainly test an Algerian defence that has yet to convince that it can withstand serious pressure. That is a sector in which Senegal look much stronger, though Algeria may put that theory under strain, especially wth Yacine Brahimi seemingly back on song.
The managers, Djamel Belmadi and Aliou Cissé, know each other well, not least from having lived just a few doors from each other during part of their childhood in Paris. And at yesterday’s pre-match press conference neither agreed with the notion that Algeria have a psychological edge over Senegal by dint of a far superior record in head-to-head meetings throughout history. Senegal have won only four of 21 previous encounters and never got the better of the Fennec Foxes at the Africa Cup of Nations, including in the last two editions, which ended in a 2-2 draw (2017) and a 2-0 triumph for Algeria (2015). But this is a year in which Senegal are expected to right past wrongs and, their fans hope with good reason, be crowned African champions for the first time. So where you? Let’s be having you!
Updated
