AFCON 2024: Holders Senegal begin title defence with 3-0 victory over Gambia

FRANCE 24 English

Senegal kicked off their campaign to defend their title with a resounding 3-0 win against Gambia. Five-time champions Cameroon were held to a 1-1 draw by 10-man Guinea. And Algeria were held 1-1 by Angola. Selina Sykes is joined on set by Eurosport journalist Ruben Slagter and FRANCE 24’s Justice Baidoo in Ivory Coast.&#160;Produced by Josephine Joly and Selina Sykes.  Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00 Hello and welcome to our special Africa Cup of Nations show here on France 24 and another

00:08 day of surprises we'll be going through it's all with you in the studio with us is Eurosport

00:14 journalist Ruben Slater, thank you for being with us this evening.

00:17 Pleasure.

00:18 And we'll also be joined by France 24's Justice Baidu in the Ivory Coast, let's get you started

00:25 by running through all the scores from today, Senegal kicked off their campaign to defend

00:31 their crown with a resounding 3-0 win against the Gambia, five-time champions Cameroon were

00:37 held to a one-all draw by Guinea and 2019 champions Algeria were held to a one-all draw

00:44 also by Angola, I'm going to turn to Ruben for this one, that match just finished shortly

00:51 ago, Angola getting a penalty in the 68th minute to make it a one apiece, another surprise

00:58 here what happened for Algeria this evening?

01:00 Well to be fair the first half was good from Algeria, there was a great goal from Bounidjad

01:06 and he even scored maybe the goal of the tournament but unfortunately he was offside but yeah

01:11 they could have been 2-0 up and then the second half Angola came back there was this penalty

01:17 which was for me a clear-cut penalty, it was the same situation as with Egypt yesterday

01:22 and yeah it was not fairly convincing to be fair the first half gave some good impressions

01:29 but yeah it's maybe a bit the tournament of the surprises we've seen it there's now so

01:34 many teams not winning their first game so it's a slow start but I don't think for Algeria

01:40 it will be a huge concern with the two games against Burkina Faso and Mauritania coming

01:44 up.

01:45 Well as we saw at the World Cup obviously in 2022 people can go on to win after losing

01:50 their opening game so all still to play for with Algeria.

01:55 Let's now move on to the Senegal the holders sorry Senegal, the Lions of Taranga kicked

02:01 off their campaign to defend their title with a comfortable 3-0 win against the Gambia,

02:07 Sadio Mane set up Papi Gueye to get them to in the lead just a few minutes after kick-off,

02:14 Amine Kamara then doubled Senegal's lead with a low finish after half-time and then

02:19 curled in an absolute beauty to finish off their win in style.

02:23 For more let's cross to our correspondent Justice Baidu who is in Ivory Coast and was

02:29 at that game.

02:31 Justice a perfect start for Senegal in their campaign to defend their title.

02:38 What a really perfect start many people did expect that they would cruise to this very

02:44 comfortable win but it was even more exciting watching them in you know the telepathy in

02:50 the team the talent that they have it's just amazing to watch.

02:56 Gambia they looked really promising from the start they looked like they were going to

03:02 be able to put up some sort of performance.

03:05 This was an interesting match because you know these are two neighboring countries they're

03:10 technically the same people but very very a lot of a lot at stake in between these two

03:17 and so it was really that the stadium was charged they had so many people from both

03:23 countries and the game did take a turn at a point when Gambia had their red card right

03:29 at the end of the first half and so that really was a problem for them and then once Senegal

03:35 took charge of the game they were in control right to the end and it was almost impossible

03:40 for Gambia to get back in.

03:42 So yes everybody did expect that Senegal would cruise to an easy win but it's almost surprising

03:49 how perfectly they play how you know the telepathy between the team and how comfortably they

03:55 get to do what they do.

03:57 And of course a big contribution to Senegal's dominance today came from Lamine Camara he

04:03 got two goals at the Young Mets midfielder today he's already making his mark.

04:12 Yes yes and he almost looks like a goal can candidate for this tournament putting two

04:22 goals in already in just one game only 19 years old his talent is really great and you

04:32 know Etoko also goes to show just the amount of talent that is available or at the disposal

04:39 of the Senegalese team you can take away the Sadio Mane's, the Koulibaly's, the Edouard

04:45 Mendes but you can also have still have a lot of they have a pool of young talent that

04:50 they could draw from like this Lamine guy who was also the best player when Senegal

04:59 won the under 20 African Cup so yes you know this is a really really talented team and

05:06 it really looks exciting to see what they can how far they can go and what they can

05:13 pull off in this tournament in defense of their title.

05:17 They are looking to do what not so many African teams have been able to do it's only Egypt

05:23 that has been able to win this tournament and then win it back to back again and Senegal

05:29 will be making that attempt in this tournament.

05:32 They will do and as you touched on there they got of a young talent to be looking forward

05:36 to we can just listen now to the manager Alou Cissé who was speaking about one of those

05:42 young stars earlier.

05:45 Extraordinary I can already imagine the newspapers headlines for tomorrow with nothing but praise

05:50 for him I've said it before and I'll say it again he's a young player and young players

05:55 need time to grow but beyond these two goals it's his volume on the pitch he really played

06:01 like an experienced player and we're going to continue to protect him because we shouldn't

06:05 tire him out too soon.

06:07 The manager Alou Cissé just talking about Lamine Camara to France 24 there just as Baidou

06:14 in Ivory Coast we will be crossing back to you in a bit back in the studio to Ruben this

06:20 was a good start for Senegal though it has to be said this is the lowest ranked team

06:24 in the tournament so the Gambia.

06:26 Yeah but it's also the Gambia that was a surprising team in Cameroon two years ago it's a derby

06:32 there was more at stake because they are so close as countries and what Justice says as

06:36 well we have that backbone with the famous names of Senegal but the impressive thing

06:40 is compared to two years ago is that there's a whole new generation already stepping up

06:44 we had a discussion yesterday with Jean-Emile about teams like Ghana about Nigeria and also

06:51 today Cameroon where they're not managing to get in a new generation where we still

06:56 see players for tournament after tournament and when you have to get new talent in Senegal

07:02 is doing it perfectly also with a head coach Alou Cissé who was there now for more than

07:05 10 years it's a real vision of the country and they are now rewarded with an easy win

07:11 in the first game and we can also say yeah it is an easy win but tell me which teams

07:16 already had an easy win in the first game it's only Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal that confirmed

07:22 their favorite status and all the others they already had stubborn opponents I think we

07:28 also shouldn't underestimate the Gambia to be fair I'm looking forward what they will

07:32 do because they showed interesting stuff today and after the red card okay the game was over

07:37 but we will see I think that's it's not the group of death for no reason we will have

07:42 some interesting games we'll have to wait and see because obviously they had a very

07:45 heroic run last time round we'll have to wait and see let's now move on to what was the

07:51 second match of the day this Afro Cup Nations is really continuing to produce a surprise

07:57 result and that other one was Cameroon's one all draw against 10-man Guinea five-time champions

08:04 were left stunned as Guinea who are ranked 80th in the world opened the scoring 10 minutes

08:08 in thanks to Mohammed Bayo Cameroon salvaged a point though with an equalizer for more

08:16 on that game let's cross back to Justice Baidu in the Ivory Coast Justice it really was a

08:23 far from ideal opening game for the Domino Lions.

08:30 Yes I did say earlier that the Guinea-Cameroon game is for me the most exciting game that

08:38 I've seen yet in this tournament it was exciting for many reasons one because Guinea is just

08:45 across the border from Ivory Coast and so there's been a huge number of supporters of

08:49 Guinea who've been able to move into Ivory Coast and and and filled up the stadium there

08:54 was drumming and dancing right from the beginning to the end of the game and Guinea they got

08:59 off to a great start scoring under in just 10 minutes and we're almost going to put up

09:06 a very good show a lot of people did expect that Cameroon four-time African winners coming

09:13 to this tournament many many times as favorites were going to be able to run away with the

09:19 win but that was not the case at all Guinea did put up a real good performance the strength

09:24 that many great passes together created very very good chances of their own until again

09:31 they had that red card coming their way and that sort of put them back and and and and

09:37 took them back and and did then decided to have to defend more in the game Cameroon came

09:44 strongly again and then did equalize and then was able to come back into the game looked

09:51 like they were going to take charge and then go on to win but the huge support that Guinea

09:56 had in the in the in the in the in the in the stadium I think played a part in in you

10:02 know putting pushing them and motivating them to ensure that they were able to hold on to

10:07 to pull off that one one draw this group looks like a very very interesting group you know

10:14 from the from the onset you might think that you know Senegal and then maybe Cameroon would

10:20 be the obvious to go through but if you look at the game that Guinea play today the sort

10:26 of compatibility in their team the sort of young talent that they also do have it's really

10:32 going to be interesting the next round of games I do not think that it's the the group

10:37 it is done at all it's really really going to be interesting the next round of games

10:41 and to see who and who would come out of this group but yeah Guinea did put up a real performance

10:48 Cameroon of course very very formidable strong team but they also did lack some sort of creativity

10:57 up front and so couldn't create a lot of chances at all they did have the issue of Onana coming

11:03 flying in he thought he was going to be able to be in goalposts for them today that didn't

11:09 happen for some reason there seemed to be a lot of friction in the Cameroonian team

11:14 and that didn't happen so yet a lot of issues coming up but very interesting to see how

11:18 the next round of matches go in this group you stole the right the words right out of

11:23 my mouth for later on justice with some very big stars are missing for Cameroon for today's

11:30 a game justice Baidu in the Ivory Coast thank you very much and let's move on before we

11:37 go just to take a quick look at Tuesday's games in group D Burkina Faso will be facing

11:44 Mauritania it's the first time the pair are playing against each other at the Africa Cup

11:49 of Nations Tunisia kick off their campaign against Namibia in group E and the Eagles

11:55 of Carthage at the and Tunisia Mali sorry face South Africa also in group E South Africa

12:03 are back in the tournament after failing to qualify last time round so Ruben lots to be

12:09 looking forward to tomorrow let's start with Burkina Faso they've been the semi-finalists

12:17 at the last two competitions now could we see them go a bit further in this competition

12:24 well they're the eternal over performance we have seen it quite often again it's not

12:29 the hardest group they have so yeah they have again an opportunity to go far what we know

12:35 from Burkina Faso it's it's it will always be a well-organized team let's see how they

12:41 do it because now they're clearly the favorite so this is a game they have to win against

12:44 against Mauritania and well it should be it should it should be okay and then yeah it

12:50 depends also a bit who they will play in the next round with this whole system with 24

12:53 teams you never know really who you're going to play but if it will be a bit a lucky draw

12:59 yeah it could be it could be semi-finals is maybe a bit ambitious but we have seen stranger

13:04 things in the in the Africa Cup of Nations we have indeed seen stranger things next up

13:09 Tunisia obviously the big favorites of their game it should be a relatively straightforward

13:15 result but we've already obviously seen a few shock results so far which the coach Jahel

13:20 Kadri has said that he is warier than the Nibalia yeah well I normally you would say

13:26 it would be a win for Tunisia but well again we have only seen two of the of the of the

13:32 favorites before every match winning their game so it yeah I'm just looking forward I

13:39 just hope what what I really like about this about this tournament so far is that all the

13:44 teams are really trying to play if we were talking before about about Guinea against

13:48 Cameroon that's it's fantastic that Guinea also because of all those supporters I think

13:52 but that they start like for 20 minutes they were they were pushing Cameroon all over the

13:58 field it's it's it's incredible that a smaller nation is against the four times champion

14:02 with so much confidence let's hope that Nibalia will do the same against Tunisia tomorrow

14:07 and then in the night there will be the big match of course with with Mali against against

14:11 South Africa and on that match Mali probably have the strongest squad they've had in a

14:16 while quite a lot of quality to be looking forward to they got knocked out in the round

14:20 of 16 last time rounds they surely will be hoping to do better yeah and again they're

14:25 in the group with with Tunisia and there's a lot of history between the two because often

14:29 it's Tunisia knocking out knocking out Mali as well so going to the to the World Cup in

14:34 Qatar they didn't qualify yeah Mali is the eternal a bit underachiever if I may might

14:39 say because they have a they have a strong team there's a lot of potential so yeah maybe

14:44 this will be this this this year will be there as it could be also really looking forward

14:48 to South Africa because as you said they haven't been there for they weren't there the last

14:53 tournament another underachiever at AFCON yeah so and and and what we have seen right

14:58 now again if also they both will realize that there's a real opportunity going far in this

15:04 tournament and and and taking risks yeah that's that's what we want to see right it is always

15:10 makes entertaining football for us all if there's a risk and survives surprises involved

15:15 that's it for this evening a big thank you to Ruben in the studio with us and thank you

15:21 to Justice Baidu in the Ivory Coast and thank you for watching tune in at the same time

15:27 at 10 past 11 Paris time for all the latest from the Africa Cup Nations goodbye for now.

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