Cote d'Ivoire 1 - Senegal 1

Photo by Fadel Senna

Senegal were playing the home leg of their two-legged series against Cote d'Ivoire in Casablanca, Morocco.  Senegal needed to overcome a 3-1 deficit on this night.  Senegal came out ablaze, and the Ivoirians had to manufacture constant miracles in defense to avoid going behind.  Cote d'Ivoire goalkeeper Boubacar Barry was picking off cross after cross, but on the one occasion that he was beaten star striker Didier Drogba was around to perform a bicycle kick clearance off the line.  After the half hour mark, the attacks from Senegal began to slow down.  Cote d'Ivoire were very pleased to get into their locker room still even at 0-0 on the night.

Souleymane Bamba missed completely on a header clearance, leaving Senegal striker Papiss Cisse (pictured, white #15) on the ball in front of goal.  A heavy touch rebounded off the last defender to Cisse, but Cisse could not beat Barry, who made a stunning kick save to preserve his clean sheet.  A bit of lax defending from Drogba allowed Sadio Mane to feign heavier contact on his back than what Drogba really had applied.  Mane threw himself into the ground and was given a penalty kick.  Moussa Sow converted the penalty kick with an illegal parandinha run-up, but the referee saw nothing wrong with the tactic and Senegal were ahead 1-0.  Yaya Toure nearly ran onto a ball to toe poke for the equalizer, but Senegal goalkeeper Bouna Condoul bravely came off his line to make a sliding block as Toure tried to shoot.  In a crazy goalmouth scramble in stoppage time, Senegal seemed sure to grab the 2-0 win that would send them through to Brasil 2014 on the away goals tiebreaker.  Instead, the attack was miraculously thwarted by Cote d'Ivoire.  As Senegal threw all their numbers forward, a late three-on-one counterattack led by Toure was laid off for Salomon Kalou, who finished through the legs of Condoul.  The match ends in a 1-1 draw, and Cote d'Ivoire advance to the 2014 FIFA World Cup by a 4-2 aggregate score.  Senegal are dealt their final blow and fail to qualify for the tournament finals.

Goals
Senegal
Moussa Sow 77 PK

Cote d'Ivoire
Salomon Kalou 90+4

Match Reports:
http://espnfc.com/us/en/report/381876/report.html?soccernet=true&cc=5901
http://www.goal.com/en-my/match/124156/senegal-vs-ivory-coast/report
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=2224825/

Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN1Po2_iwMs