MAHREZ AND MANE LIVE UP TO THEIR STAR STATUS
LIBREVILLE – Two of Africa’s top talents, Riyad Mahrez and Sadio Mane, both found the back of the net at the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday but only Mane was on the winning side as Senegal beat Tunisia.
Mahrez scored twice for Algeria but his team had to settle for a 2-2 draw with rank outsiders Zimbabwe in the opening match of a Group B double bill in Franceville.
Mane, voted the continent’s third-best player, converted an early penalty to set Senegal on their way to a 2-0 win in the later game, although the continent’s top-ranked nation were far from convincing.
Senegal’s win was as much down to the wastefulness of their opponents as anything else as Tunisia squandered chance after chance in a dominant second half performance.
“We were strong in the first half but let it slip a little after the break,” said Senegal coach Aliou Cisse, whose team were among the pre-tournament favourites.
Mane’s 10th minute spot kick was followed by a powerful header from Kara Mbodji that doubled the score on the half hour mark, leaving Tunisia as the first team to suffer defeat at the tournament after the first three games were drawn.
Zimbabwe were just eight minutes away from a famous win on their return to the finals after an 11-year absence before Mahrez snatched an equaliser.
But Zimbabwe provided exciting attacking play and equalised within five minutes of Mahrez’s opener through Kudakwashe Mahachi and then went ahead when Nyasha Mushekwi converted a 29th minute penalty.
“You asked me who was the favourite and I answered Zimbabwe,” coach Callisto Pasuwa told reporters afterwards.
“I hope that this point against Algeria will motivate my players to do better in the next game against Senegal.”
The next sequence of Group B games are in Franceville on Thursday.