One of the biggest surprises in this year’s edition of AFCON was the elimination of the current champion Senegal by the hosts, Ivory Coast after the penalty shootout. And the Elephants are a strong team, surely among the favourites by names, but ahead of this match, they were out of form; they lost to Equatorial Guinea 4-0 and sack their manager and only because of the results in the other groups they managed to qualify for the knockout stage as one of the best third-placed teams. And they came up against reigning champions Senegal, who played excellently and won all three games in the group stage and eventually defeated them, mostly because of Franck Kessie, who scored the equalizer and then the decisive goal in the penalty shootout.🇸🇳 Krépin Diatta to the officials after Senegal were knocked out of AFCON against the hosts Ivory Coast:“𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝘃𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝘀, 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁! 𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝘂𝗽.” pic.twitter.com/aB4FllRlwx— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) January 30, 2024 And the former Barcelona midfielder explained the mindset before the Senegal game.“When you come out of a match against Equatorial Guinea where you were beaten up in front of your audience, in the stadium which bears the name of the president, we really felt this frustration and this humiliation. We said to ourselves that even if we were going to meet Senegal, title holders, and who were coming off three victories in three matches, we had to give everything to create a surprise, the pressure was no longer on our side. We responded and thank God we won. But there is still room for improvement. way to go. It’s clear that, when Côte d’Ivoire plays badly, it’s easier to index a player like Franck Kessié because I’m one of the veterans and I’m also there. So it’s normal. It’s normal that I receive criticism to be able to protect the younger players. So I accept it and the criticism allows us to work and improve ‘go as far as possible” said Kessié to beIN Sports after the game.AFCON 2023: Franck Kessie sends the champions home, the Elephants make it!But there were players who thought otherwise. Senegal’s winger Krepin Diatta accused the CAF officials of corruption since he wasn’t happy with the Gabonese referee Pierre Ghislain Atcho decision during the game.“You are corrupt. You killed us, you are corrupt. Keep your African Cup” Senegalese defender Krépin Diatta told CAF members, furious with the refereeing.AFCON2023: “No Stopping Here” – Cote d’Ivoire interim boss Fae eyes further glory after Senegal upsetHe thought that Senegal should have been given the penalty in the 55th minute when Ismaila Sarr was tackled, but instead, the referee didn’t even consult VAR. He did the same thing at the end of the game when he was just meters away from Edouard Mendy and yet failed to see that he brought down Nicolas Pepe and gave a penalty to the Ivory Coast only after looking at VAR.“Everyone saw. You can’t decide the fate of an entire country like that. it’s incomprehensible. You go to see the VAR to give them a penalty, Ismaïla Sarr who takes the ball 40 meters and rides, enters the area, and you don’t want to go watch the VAR? I’m sorry but there it’s abusive. I’m really sorry but there they killed our competition” said Diatta.AFCON 2023Tuesday20:00: (2.30) Mali (3.10) Burkina Faso (3.40)23:00: (1.62) Morocco (3.50) S.Africa (6.50)***odds are subject to change***
