Senegal kicked off their Africa Cup of Nations title defence with a comfortable 3-0 win over 10-man Gambia in Group C. Lamine Camara scored twice after the break to mark a solid start to Group C.
Defending champions Senegal began the defence of their Africa Cup of Nations title with a 3-0 win against 10-man Gambia.
Aliou Cisse’s side made the perfect start when Sadio Mane teed up an unmarked Pape Gueye, who rifled his shot into the bottom corner from inside the box.
Gambia created some good opportunities in the first half with Musa Barrow curling a free-kick into the side netting while Ali Sowe headed over following a corner. Their chances of salvaging something were dealt a huge blow before half-time when Ebou Adams was shown a red card for a studs-up challenge after a VAR check.
The Lions made their man advantage count when Ismaila Sarr threaded the ball through to Lamine Camara, who timed his run perfectly to score with a low shot just after the break.
In the closing minutes, Camara capped off a player-of-the-match performance by curling a beautiful first-time shot from outside the box into the top corner, taking the Teranga Lions on to mark a solid start to their title defence in Group C.
In the other Group C match, the indomitable Lions of Cameroon drew 1-1 with Guinea-Bissau sharing the points apiece as they began their quest for their sixth AFCON title.
Mohamed Bayo gave Guinea the lead after just 10 minutes from a massive error-laden Cameroonian defence, but the Central African nation were able to take advantage of a red caught by Francois Kamano just before half-time, with a Frank Magri equaliser shortly after the restart, but they could not find a winner.Â
In another match of the day, a Group D clash between the Fennec Fox of Algeria and the Giant Stable Antelope of Angola, Baghdad Bounedjah scored for Algeria on 18 minutes, but Angola nabbed a 1-1 equalizer when Mabululu scored from the spot midway through the second half.
