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Sierra Leone fight back to hold Cote d’Ivoire

Sierra Leone celebrate their goal. PHOTO CAFONLINE MEDIA

✳ Sierra Leone 2 Ivory Coast 2
✳ Tunisia 4 Mauritania 0
✳ Algeria 0 Equatorial Guinea 1

Yaounde, Cameroon | THE INDEPENDENT | The Sierra Leone team showed character and determination as they fought back to hold Cote d’Ivoire 2-2 in a Group E match played Sunday evening at the on-going TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations 2021.

The Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire were only two minutes away from bagging maximum points, but the Leone Stars capitalized on goalkeeper Badra Ali Sangare’s error and made it 2-2 through substitute Alhaji Kamara at the Japoma Stadium in Douala, Cameroon.

It was a tense moment for Cote d’Ivoire in added time as their skipper Serge Aurier was forced to go in goal after goalkeeper Sangare was carried off injured.

The goal motivated the Sierra Leone team as they stepped up in attack. Turay had his free kick miss the target for Sierra Leone after 58 minutes.

But the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire did not stop attacking and were 2-1 up after 66 minutes after some good inter passing which was eventually set-up by Zaha Nicolas Pepe blasted the ball in the corner.

Cote d’Ivoire continued to attack in numbers, but the Sierra Leone defending line stood firm, clearing and blocking several balls in their territory.

With just one minute of added time to the final whistle Cote d’Ivoire’s goalkeeper Sangare failed to get hold a back pass before Kamara made no mistake sliding it in the net. It was all celebrations for the Sierra Leone team after the final whistle.

Cote d’Ivoire remained top of the Group with four points, while Sierra Leone are second on two points. Later Algeria will face Equatorial Guinea in another Group E match.

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SOURCE: CAFONLINE MEDIA

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