{"id":34493,"date":"2026-01-04T12:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=34493"},"modified":"2026-01-04T12:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:09:18","slug":"senegal-march-on-to-afcon-quarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=34493","title":{"rendered":"Senegal march on to AFCON quarters"},"content":{"rendered":"
Teenager Ibrahim Mbaye scored four minutes after coming off the bench to clinch a 3-1 victory for Senegal over Sudan in Tangiers on Saturday in the first Africa Cup of Nations last-16 match.<\/p>\n

The 17-year-old Paris Saint-Germain forward represented France at age-limit level before switching his international allegiance to Senegal, where his father was born.<\/p>\n

Former champions Senegal will face Mali or Tunisia, who meet in Casablanca later on Saturday, in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

Rattled by an early Aamir Abdallah goal for Sudan, Senegal recovered to lead 2-1 at half-time through a Pape Gueye brace. Mbaye put the outcome beyond doubt after 77 minutes.<\/p>\n

It was a predicable result as Senegal are 99 places higher in the world rankings than Sudan, who were representing a country ravaged by civil war since April 2023.<\/p>\n

“We played against a very disciplined Sudan team who showed that they got this far on merit. We needed to dig deep to come from a goal down to win,” said Senegal coach Pape Thiaw.<\/p>\n

“Now we will focus on the next match and correct some of the mistakes we noted and pursue our goals with intensity.”<\/p>\n

Ghana-born Sudan coach Kwesi Appiah said: “I am disappointed with the result, but proud of the effort of my players.<\/p>\n

“We played against a very experienced Senegal team, but showed our quality. Despite the result, I am sure the Sudanese people know that we came to this competition and proudly represented them.”<\/p>\n

Sudan rocked Senegal by taking a sixth-minute lead through Abdallah, a semi-professional who plays for an Australian second-tier club in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Gueye brace\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a superb goal as the Sudan striker took possession just inside the area and curled the ball over former Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy and into the net.<\/p>\n

Sudan had qualified for the knockout stage as one of the best four third-placed nations despite their players failing to score a single goal in three group matches, although an own goal brought victory over Equatorial Guinea.<\/p>\n

A brave save from Sudan goalkeeper Monged Abuzaid on 29 minutes foiled Nicolas Jackson, but Senegal equalised almost immediately.<\/p>\n

Former African player of the year Sadio Mane set up Gueye, who equalised with a low shot just inside the right post.<\/p>\n

Senegal attacked continuously while Sudan had little to offer going forward in a match watched by Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe from South Africa.<\/p>\n

The Mauritanian referee pointed to the penalty spot after Abuzaid fouled Ismaila Sarr. However, the decision was reversed after a long VAR review revealed a Senegalese player was offside in the build-up.<\/p>\n

Crystal Palace attacker Sarr then scored only to be ruled offside in another let-off for the Sudanese.<\/p>\n

Abuzaid was constantly in action and did well to push away a Gueye shot with an outstretched right hand as half-time approached.<\/p>\n

There was still time for Gueye to score again, however, and give Senegal a half-time lead in the Mediterranean city.<\/p>\n

The Villarreal midfielder side-footed home a cross three minutes into added time.<\/p>\n

Senegal introduced Mbaye midway through the second half as they sought the insurance of a third goal. He made an immediate impact, latching on to a long pass and beating Abuzaid at his near post.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teenager Ibrahim Mbaye scored four minutes after coming off the bench to clinch a 3-1 victory for Senegal over Sudan in Tangiers on Saturday in the first Africa Cup of Nations last-16 match. The 17-year-old Paris Saint-Germain forward represented France at age-limit level before switching his international allegiance to Senegal, where his father was born. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}