Izuchukwu OkosiHost nation, Cote d’Ivoire, began their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations campaign on a winning note as they defeated Guinea Bissau with a 2-0 win, reports Prime Business Africa.
The game was also the first in a Group A that also contains Nigeria’s Super Eagles and Equatorial Guinea who face off 3pm on Sunday.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe Ivorians are hosting the tournament for the second time in history after doing so in 1984 and victory over the opponents mean they have only lost once in their previous 11 international matches.
It took just four minutes into the game for the Elephants to go ahead the Wild Dogs as captain Seko Fofana curled home the ball from the edge of the box.
After the goal, there were a couple of chances presented to both sides particularly from the duo of Wilfried Singo (Cote d’Ivoire) and skipper Jonas Mendes (Guinea-Bissau) as their header and thunderbolt of a strike respectively livened up the 60,000 capacity Allasane Quattara Stadium, Abidjan.
The home side vehemently called for a penalty just before the break when Jean-Phillipe Krasso went down under the challenge of Marcelo Djaló but referee Amin Omar from Egypt played the game on.
Krasso’s clever volleyed finish made it 2-0 just before the hour mark to further put daylight between both nations in the first out 52 games of the tournament.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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