The sky in Ivory Coast was ruffled over the Amadou Coulibali Stadium on Saturday when two powerful Eagles met in an African Cup of Nations Group E encounter with a baffling drawn game of 1-1 to Eagles of Mali and the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia.
Although the Tunisian players forced Mali to the draw to get a point off the game when Abdi took advantage of a mistake by the Malian defense to find Italian based Hamza Rafia who score a brilliant equalizer at 20th minute.
Malians will blame themselves for their high level squandering adventure for the West Africans should have beaten Tunisia silly. Mali’s goal is what in Television Broadcasting is called a Montage goal used to introduce Sports programmes as Auxerre’s player; Lassine Sinayoko blasted into the Tunisian net an intercontinental ballistic missile in the class of the shots of the famous ‘Thunder’ Teslim Balogun of Nigeria in the 10th minute of play. It is baffling how the hot shot did not tear the net. Sinayoko had scored against South Africa in the group opening game.
Kamouri Doubia of Mali was Man of The Match.
By the result of today, South Africa will be under severe pressure to beat Namibia in an outstanding group match tomorrow. The second match of Group E between South Africa and Namibia is slated for 9pm tomorrow at the Coulibaly Stadium after Morocco and DR Congo would have tested strength in Group D at 3pm and Zambia meet Tanzania at 6pm.
As at Saturday night Mali leads Group E with 4 points from two matches scoring 3 goals and conceding one; Namibia with one match is 2nd with 3 points scoring a goal and conceding none; Tunisia chalked only one point from two matches scoring a lone goal and conceding 2 to be in the 3rd position while South Africa with only a game is yet to earn a point yet to score and struggling with 2 goals deficit.
There were six records of Tunisia meeting Mali. On 31st January 2016 Tunisia bowed to Mali 1-2 in an AFCON match; they played 1-1 draw on 28th June 19 in another AFCON duel; on 15th June 2021 in a friendly show it ended Tunisia 1 Mali 0; Tunisia won by a lone goal in an AFCON match on 12th January 2022; in a world cup qualifier meeting of 25th March 2022 Tunisia ran away with a lone goal victory and in a world cup match of 29th March 2022 it was goalless.
In the last matches of Mali before the AFCON 23 Games, Mali beat Saudi 3-1in a friendly match on 17th October 2023; defeated Chad 3-1in a world cup qualifier on 17th November 2023; drew 1-1 with Central African Republic on 20th November 2023 in a world cup qualifier; slaughtered Guinea Bissau 6-2 on 6th January 2024 in a friendly match and in AFCON 23 opening Group match defeated South Africa 2-0.
Mali ranked 51 with 13 appearances has played 53 matches of the AFCON games without winning the trophy on their preparation played 1-1 with Uganda on 13th October 2023 in a friendly; in another friendly played on 17th October 2023 Mali beat Saudi 3-1; also beat Chad 3-1 in a world cup match of 17th November 2023; got 1-1 draw against CAR in a world cup 20th November 2023; and on 6th January 2024 Mali thrashed Guinea Bissau 6-2 in a friendly.
The Best of Mali was being Runners up in 1972. She lost to PR Congo 2-3; at Tunisia 94 she placed 4th losing to Ivory Coast 1-3; she hosted in 2002 and lost the Bronze to Nigeria by a lone goal; it was Nigeria again that stopped the nation from winning the Bronze at Tunisia 2004 3-1 it was; but Mali beat Ghana 2-0 to win the Bronze when Nigeria and Ghana hosted in 2012; their last effort at the podium was 2013 when she won the Bronze 3-1 over Ghana in South Africa.
Tunisia had trounced Sao Tome and Principe 4-0 on 17th November 2023 in a world cup qualifier match; piped Malawi by a lone goal on 21st November 2023 also in a world cup qualifier; played a shocking goalless draw in a friendly on 6th January 2024; defeated Cape Verde 2-0 in a friendly on 10th January 2024 and in the opening Group match Tunisia pathetically lost 0-1 to Namibia.
The Carthage Eagles of Tunisia ranked 28 in the world are in the party for the 22nd time with a title achieved in 2014. Tunisia won a Bronze at Ethiopia 62 beating Uganda 3-0; hosted in 1965 and lost to Ghana in the finals 3-2 after Extra Time to cart home the Silver medal; placed 4th at Ghana 78 losing to Nigeria 0-2; funny they hosted in 1994 but did not go near the podium; came back for the Silver at South Africa 96 losing 0-2 to the hosts; when Nigeria and Ghana co-hosted in 2000 she placed 4th losing again to South Africa 4-3 on penalties after 2-2 at full time and at Egypt 2019 Nigeria displaced the North Africans to the 4th place by a lone goal.
Wednesday 24th January is when teams to advance in Group D will be decided. It will go simultaneously with Tunisia versus South Africa in a decisive game and Namibia versus Mali both at 6pm.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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