2021 Africa Cup of Nations: Ethiopia shock Ivory Coast 2-1

Discuss World Football here. Continental football, International Leagues, and players.
Post Reply
User avatar
iworo
Egg
Egg
Posts: 3731
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2004 5:39 pm
Location: New York
2021 Africa Cup of Nations: Ethiopia shock Ivory Coast 2-1

Post by iworo »

2021 Africa Cup of Nations: Ethiopia shock Ivory Coast

Image
Ethiopian coach Abraham Mebratu led Yemen to its first ever Asian Cup finals

Ethiopia under the guidance of local coach Abraham Mebratu, caused an upset in 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying with a 2-1 win over visiting Ivory Coast.

Also on Tuesday Morocco bounced back from being held at home by Mauritania with a 3-0 in Burundi.

Ivory Coast took an early lead in their Group K match against Ethiopia as captain Serge Aurier scored after just four minutes.

The Tottenham defender was the first to react after the Ethiopian keeper Abel Mamo was only able to parry a freekick from Max Gradel on the left.

The Ethiopians drew level 12 minutes later as a freekick from just outside the area from Surafel Dagnachew deflected off the head of an Ivorian in the wall to leave Sylvain Gbohouo wrong-footed as the ball went into the net.

They hosts took the lead on 26 minutes as Shemeles Bekele picked up the ball midway in the Ivorian half, as referee waved away claims of handball, he raced into the area and his shot found its way through Gboouhou and into the net.

Ivory Coast did have chances to find an equaliser including a free header that was put wide of the target in the dying seconds of the match.

The Elephants won their opening game 1-0 against Niger while Ethiopia had lost by the same scoreline in Madagascar.

Ajax defender Noussair Mazraoui scored his first ever goal for Morocco in their comfortable 3-0 win over Group E hosts Burundi.

Mazraoui was on target after 27 minutes when he squeezed the ball home when Burundi keeper Jonathan Nahimana was unable to hold onto a free kick fired in by Rachid Alioui.

Morocco's second goal came five minutes before half-time and was also the result of poor defending.

An initial header from Youssef En Nesyri was well saved by Nahimana but the ball fell to Alioui who managed to cross into the six yard area and the keeper and defenders got in each others way to allow En Nesyri a simple finish.

Achraf Hakimi, on a two-year loan at Borussia Dortmund from Real Madrid, sealed the win with eight minutes left as he picked up Sofyan Amrabat's ball over the top, took two touches and fired across the keeper to make it 3-0.

The top two sides in 11 of the 12 groups will all advance to the 2021 finals in Cameroon.

Cameroon qualify for the finals as hosts but are taking part in the qualifying campaign to gain competitive match practice which means just one team from Group F will progress to the finals.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/50476336

Post Reply