Senegal’s Lions of Teranga failed to defend their African Cup of Nations 2023 title. Beaten by Côte d’Ivoire, Aliou Cissé and his charges returned home earlier than expected. After the competition, AS Monaco left-back Ismael Jakobs spoke about the fatal match against the Elephants in the Round of 16.
The 34th edition of the African Cup of Nations made history several days ago. After a month of intense competition, it was the hosts, Côte d’Ivoire, who came out on top with a 2-1 final victory over Nigeria. On the roof of Africa, the Elephants achieved an extraordinary feat that will go down in history. After struggling to qualify for the knockout stages, Didier Drogba’s country suddenly changed face against former champions Senegal. Heralded as favourites for the title, Aliou Cissé’s Senegal were unlucky, as Ismael Jakobs explains.
Jakobs refuses to talk about refereeing errors
Sadio Mané and his team-mates were eliminated in a penalty shoot-out in the Round of 16 in Yamoussoukro after a nerve-wracking match full of refereeing controversy. A few weeks after that elimination, which still sticks in the craw of many Senegalese, the Lions’ young left-back Ismael Jakobs, who was playing in his first African Cup of Nations, spoke about the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and his team’s elimination in particular.
“I don’t really want to talk about the referee’s decision on the penalty awarded to Côte d’Ivoire, that’s behind us now. We can’t change anything if it was a mistake. That’s football. When you’re in a direct qualifier, it comes down to one match, and in Africa there are no easy matches. We played well in the group stage, for example, but those matches weren’t easy either,” he confided in an interview with L’Observateur.
“We were also a little unlucky”.
While he refuses to dwell on refereeing controversies, as did Krépin Diatta (now sanctioned), the 24-year-old Senegal international (17 caps since 2022) believes his team were unlucky to lose to the Ivorians. “It’s only one match, and maybe we were a little unlucky to come up against Côte d’Ivoire, even though they had a poor run in the group phase. They had a new coach and went into the game with a different mentality. They had come back from the dead, so they had nothing to lose, that’s football,” says Jakobs, who takes nothing away from the Elephants’ merit.
Like Aliou Cissé’s player, who played in all the matches at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, many believe that everything was predestined for the Ivorians to win their Cup of Nations. In any case, it’s fair game. The time has now come for the Lions of Teranga to rebuild and mobilise all their resources to bounce back quickly. While Aliou Cissé’s future is not in jeopardy, barring a 360-degree turnaround, the 47-year-old coach will continue his adventure with Senegal and take part in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, as well as the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, which will be played in Morocco.
After their misfortune on Ivorian soil, the 2021 African champions’ objective will be to qualify for these competitions and, above all, prove that the team remains one of the best on the African continent. And to do that, they will have to make some tough choices to revitalise the team. A number of players should be withdrawn from the squad to allow the youngsters to develop more quickly and bring about the renewal that the people want.
What do you think of Jakobs’ comments about bad luck?
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