It's the end of the international break. Petkovic's Algeria get off to a good start, Emerse Faé's Elephants keep up their incredible resources even away from Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal bounce back and Benin still don't know how to win on the pitch.
Guela Doué, first goal in the professional world
Emerse Faé, appointed Côte d'Ivoire coach in the midst of the 2023 African Cup of Nations, continues his unbeaten run on the Elephants' bench. During this break, the African champions played two friendly matches in France. They displayed the same incredible resources as in Côte d'Ivoire in February. Trailing twice against Benin, they managed to come back on both occasions (2-2). And yesterday, against Uruguay, they snatched victory in the dying minutes (2-1). Thanks to a goal from their new recruit Guéla Doué. Born and raised in France, the right-back from Rennes was making his first appearance for the Elephants. He scored just one minute after coming on as a substitute. It was quite simply his first professional goal, as he had never scored for Stade Rennais, his club of origin.
Magnificent goal from Benzia
There were plenty of goals from African teams during this truce. The Lions of Senegal overcame the Panthères of Gabon (3-0), the Central African Republic outclassed Bhutan (6-0) and Papua New Guinea (4-0), and Guinea torpedoed Bermuda (5-1). But of all these goals, the one that really stood out was scored by Yassine Benzia. The Lyon-trained Algerian striker scored an incredible scissor-kick against South Africa (3-3) that will undoubtedly go down as one of the finest of 2024. The Qarabag player has scored a lot of points during this break, with three goals in two games. Petkovic, who is making his debut with the Fennecs, can count on him.
Benin no longer know how to win
Benin almost took the scalp of the African champions. It would have been a great way to beat the odds.But the Cheetahs are still not winning. They were twice pegged back by Côte d'Ivoire (2-2) and yesterday, despite a great chance from Steve Mounié and a penalty kick, the Beninese lost to Senegal (0-1). On the pitch, Benin have not won a match since March 27, 2022 against Zambia 2-1, making it 14 games in a row without a victory. The only three points they have taken during this period was on a green carpet against Rwanda during the AFCON 2023 qualifiers.
Friendly match schedule and times in GMT :
Thursday March 21
Ethiopia 1-2 Lesotho
Cape Verde 1-0 Guyana
Guinea 6-0 Vanuatu
South Africa 1-1 Andorra
Friday March 22nd
Central African Republic 6-0 Bhutan (9:30am)
Bulgaria 1-0 Tanzania (1pm)
Nigeria 2-1 Ghana (3pm)
Equatorial Guinea 2-0 Cambodia (7pm)
Senegal 3-0 Gabon (7:30pm)
Egypt 1-0 New Zealand (8pm)
Algeria 3-2 Bolivia (9pm)
Burkina Faso 1-2 Libya (22h)
Mauritania 0-2 Mali (22h)
Morocco 1-0 Angola (22h)
Niger 1-2 Togo (22h)
Saturday, March 23
Zambia 2- 2 Zimbabwe (13h)
Ivory Coast 2-2 Benin (4pm)
Malawi 0-4 Kenya (16h)
Tunisia 0-0 (tab 4-5) Croatia (20h)
Monday March 25
Central African Republic 4-0 Papua New Guinea (9:30am)
Tanzania 3-0 Mongolia (1pm)
Cape Verde 1-0 Equatorial Guinea (7pm)
Guinea 5-1 Bermuda (7pm)
Tuesday March 26
Uruguay 1-2 Ivory Coast
Algeria 3-3 South Africa (9pm)
Nigeria 0-2 Mali
Morocco 0-0 Mauritania
Togo 1-1 Libya (22h)
Senegal 1-0 Benin
