An anticlimactic 0-0 draw between Sudan and Guinea-Bissau took place in the port city of Garoua and there were almost no interesting moments worth mentioning. But a late Pelé penalty miss deserves a piece of its own. An uneventful encounter overall saw a massive and almost comical, chance for the Wild Dogs close to the end.With only nine goals registered to date across nine games in total, neutral spectators will be wondering when this tournament will catch fire.AFCON 2021: Super Eagles fly over the Pharaohs, Iheanacho scores for the well deserved victoryGuinea-Bissau started off looking more determined especially Mama Baldé, who was full of trickery in the opening minutes. Troyes’ forward drew a foul from a frustrated opponent in the 17th minute which almost brought the lead to the West-African men. They should have scored from the resulting free-kick – however unmarked Joseph Mendes did not materialize a free header – he hit the ball clumsily with his shoulder and hit the post from close range.First-half stoppage time saw the first promising situation for Sudan. On his first cap for Guinea-Bissau, goalkeeper Maurice Gomis could have been defeated by Abdel Rahman’s venomous shot but the goalie did his job. Rahman was instrumental in everything good for the Falcons of Jedaine and Sudan slowly started to turn the tide in the second half.Inexperienced Gomis waited for the ball to enter the box before picking up, quite unnecessarily. At first glance, he brought down Rahman, but the Senegalese referee Issa Sy did not see it as a penalty.MISS! GUINEA BISSAU!Pele misses the penalty in an embarrassing affair, after many rebounds.Sudan 🇸🇩 0-0 🇬🇼 Guinea Bissau#AFCON2021pic.twitter.com/UKpnntRlQe— African Insider #AFCON2021 🏆 (@African_Insider) January 11, 2022 Eventually, a penalty came but for the Djurtus. Substitute Steve Ambri gave Guinea-Bissau a chance of winning it from the spot when Ali Abu-Eshrein clattered into him. Pelé stepped up and completely opposite to the genius of his world-famous namesake, failed to convert. Pele’s terrible penalty following an awful preparation for the shot and an arrogant short run-up was saved by Abu-Eshrein – Sudanese goalkeeper thus made up for his earlier error.But that was not all. After Abu-Eshrein saved the penalty he sent the ball only few meters away where Piqueti collected the rebound – but his shot only rattled the crossbar, extending the agony for the Wild Dogs. Piqueti tried again from another rebound afterward but his position was much harder than seconds earlier and he only managed to send the ball in the side-netting.Now, these teams face much heavier tasks with meeting Nigeria and Egypt. Sudan have something to hope for since they managed to do some ‘giant-killing’ in the qualification for the tournament when they defeated Ghana and South Africa.AFRICA CUP OF NATIONSGroup DNigeria – Egypt 1-0 (1-0)/Iheanacho 30/Sudan – Guinea Bissau 0-0
