January 18, 2022
The Leone Stars of Sierra Leone scored a dramatic injury-time equalizer to grab a two-all draw (2-2) against the Elephants of Ivory Coast on 16th January 2022 in the ongoing the Africa Cup of Nations in Douala.
The Elephant had been coasting but an astonishing mistake from Badra Sangare allowed Alhaji Kamara to tap in Keeper fumbled a back – header and could only watch helplessly as Kamara secured a second successive drawback for Leone Stars in group E. The draw means they have every hope of going through to the last 16.
Sierra Leone has two points from two games while the Ivorian top the group with four points to their name. However, they still have work to do when they face defending champions Algeria on Thursday.
Both Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast miss an early penalty but then lead twice before Sierra Leone hit back dramatically. The Ivorian should have already been in front in the 12 minutes after Wilfred Zaha was brought down in the box by Sierra Leone captain Umaru Bangura’s clumsy challenge. But Keeper Mohamed Nbalie Kamara, who was a man of the match in the opening game against Algeria, produced another great save to deny AC Milan Frank Kessie’s from the spots.
The Elephants took the lead in the 25th minute when Wilfred Zaha’s outstanding pass found Sebastian Haller as the defense backpedaled and the Ajax man ran and fire home his first goal at the nations Cup finals.
Sierra Leone got the reward they deserved easily in the second half thanks to a magnificent left-footed strike from Musa Noah Kamara which brought them to level with 55 minutes on the block. The equalizer provided the sting that Ivory Coast needed to up their game and 10 minutes later they were on fronts again. Haller unselfishly laid the ball off to Ibrahim Sangare who in turn fed Nicolas Pepe the Arsenal man curled into the bottom corner.
The Elephants wasted several clear cut chances to wrap up the points, with substitute Hamad Traove particularly wasteful and Nablie Kamara pulled off a couple more outstanding saves, that left open chances that the Ivory Coast could be punished and so it proved in stoppage time when the Leone Stars pushed forward one last time and Samgare made his mistake.
Sierra Leone finals group game is against Equatorial Guinea in Limbe on Thursday and confidence will be sky high after another impressive result and performance against another of Africa heavyweights.
credit SWASAL with Support from SLFA