No thread, so I'll start. The championship started yesterday with wins for Tunisia and Senegal. GROUP A: Senegal South Africa Tunisia Zambia GROUP B: Algeria Egypt Mali Nigeria GAME 1: Senegal - South Africa 3:1 Goals: 14' PG, 22' Ibrahima Keita, 87' Sidy Sarr - 28' PG Phumlani Ntshangase Senegal will qualify easily from what I see and they will be very strong at the Olympics. GAME 2: Tunisia - Zambia 2:1 Goals: 3', 85' Haythem Jouini - 15' Ronald Kampamba Tunisian goals were due to poor defending, the Zambian goal was after a mistake as well, but quite a delightful lob from almost the halfway line.
CAF YT channel uploaded them in better quality Wow Osimhen is the Nigeria squad. He's only 17. https://www.youtube.com/user/MyAfricanFootball/videos
Algeria - Egypt 1:1 68' Zinedine Ferhat - 54' Kahraba Apparently Algeria actually outplayed Egypt. Nigeria - Mali 3:2 16', 45' Junior Ajayi, 40' Usman Mohammed - 55' Adama Niane, 65' Souleymane Sissoko Nigeria let go of a killer 3:0 lead and almost let Mali claw back. This Mali team is impressive and despite the loss all that was missing was finishing (no defence will be able to stop their combination one-touch football). Mali has quite a generation of players growing up. Time will tell if they squander them... After this match I think Mali and Nigeria will make it out of the group.
South Africa - Zambia 3:2 47' Menzi Masuku 52', 54' Gift Motupa - 35' Conlyde Luchanga, 73' Billy Mutale Zambia tumble at the beginning of the first half and are sent packing home. South Africa with the win are back in the game. Follow the highlights here: https://www.youtube.com/user/MyAfricanFootball/videos
Senegal - Tunisia 2:0 1' Ibrahima Diédhiou, 85' Mouhamed Habib Diall The Tunisian goalkeeper concedes another poor goal by forgetting to protect his line. Senegal into the semis after dominating the group and wins the group after 2 games. Tunisia now go h2h for second place vs South Africa. Top 3 qualify for Rio, so I expect this to be Senegal and whoever makes it out of group B. Senegal really impressive.
Farhat opens up the scoring for Algeria (vs Mali) after 74 minutes of play Mali is heading to elimination if they don't comeback from this. http://www.yalla-shoot.com/live/7043/algeria-vs-mali.html
And a 2nd goal just got scored. With ~10 minutes (including extra time), the situation looks really dire for Mali.
FT Algeria 2:0 Mali 73' Zinedine Farhat, 83' Zakaria Draoui (might have been an OG) Mali had the ball most of the time but failed to create danger and got punished by Algeria on the counter. As a result they're now out. Meanwhile Algeria is in a good position to advance but still have to face Nigeria in the final game. A draw would see them through.
Mali look great on the ball, but lacked the finishing edge of the U20 team. Maybe because the key players of that team are in Europe? Algeria looking good to make the semis. Egypt vs Nigeria now....
No idea but they didn't threaten that much when you see how much possession and chances they could've created. Algeria sat in the back and played their counters perfectly. Could've scored more if they played more offensively seeing the errors Mali were making in defense. Remind me of our games vs Senegal last AFCON.
Terrible mistake by the ref. I must say that live it did look like the Egyptian touched the ball with his hand, but replays showed he retreated his hand at the last moment and the ball his his knee... Nigeria 1:0 up and Egypt will undoubtedly cry foul play. That said Egypt are decidedly second best in this game.
This time handball, but the player really didn't know much about it... nonetheless not a controversial call, even if I wouldn't have given it.
BTW, the game ended with a 2-2 scoreline. Nigeria scored 2 PKs in the 1st half before Egypt managed to get level by scoring 2 goals in the 2nd one. This was one of the worst results for Algeria as a draw for last game might not be enough if Egypt beats Mali.
Senegal 1:0 Zambia South Africa 1:0 Tunisia Senegal ends up in 1st place with 9 points, followed by South Africa (6 pts). Tunisia (3) & Zambia (0) are out of the group.
Basically whoever wins this game progresses. Mali - Egypt isn't a foregone conclusion though (Mali is pretty darn good in everything except finishing) and despite a loss both teams may still make it out. Nigeria can draw or win and they make it out regardless of the Mali - Egypt game. Algeria would need to draw 3:3 or higher to be guaranteed progression (regardless of the Egypt game), so a high scoring draw will benefit both teams. Nigeria - Egypt 2:2 21' PG, 30' PG Etebo Oghenekaro - 47' Ramadan Sobhi, 54' OG Chizoba Amaefule
3-3 seems highly unlikely tho. But it'll be an exciting (I hope) race for the semis (and top of the group). Senegal seems too good right now while South Africa is definitely beatable for any team in this group.
I expect 1,2 and 3 to be Senegal and whoever makes it out of this group. Senegal showed South Africa their place in their game and I doubt they can beat any of the other teams. That said... I was a bit surprised they bested Tunisia.
Mali up 1:0 with 15 minutes to go. Egypt needs 2 goals to stay in this, else Algeria and Nigeria are through (no matter what).
Mali wins, so the other game is just for honor and not to play Senegal. In the case of a draw - Algeria win the group. === Mali - Egypt 1:0 18' OG Hussein Ragab Game ends in a timid 0:0 draw, so its: Algeria - South Africa Nigeria - Senegal
Algeria was slightly better at one point but they got content with the draw. Nigeria failed to take advantage of that.