In Ivory Coast, it’s already been two months since the Elephants were crowned champions of the 2023 AFCON at home after eliminating the Senegalese, the defending champions, in the round of 16.
Even though the journey started very painfully and seemed very difficult from the group stage matches, the Ivorian team managed to bounce back and achieve a great feat.
After narrowly escaping elimination in the group stage, the Elephants had to face the Lions of Teranga in the round of 16.
This was the favorite of the competition, and all predictions favored Ivory Coast to lose this match.
Moreover, this round of 16 match of the 2023 AFCON did not start in the best way for the Ivorians with an early goal from the Senegalese.
Emerse Fae’s boys had the necessary strength to equalize later on and eliminate the Lions of Teranga in the penalty shootout. According to Elephants’ goalkeeper Yahia Fofana, Senegal made the mistake of lowering the intensity after scoring first in this match.
This allowed the Ivorian team to regain confidence and stay in the game until the equalizer and then the penalty shootout.
“When they scored 1-0, we thought it was going to be tough, but in the end, they completely stopped playing, stopped pressing us, and started to retreat. At the beginning of the match, Sadio Mane and others were putting a lot of pressure on me, but after their goal, I was rather calm,” said Yahia Fofana.
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