Angola marked their first appearance in the Africa Cup of Nations since 2013 with a well-deserved point against Tunisia in Group E on Monday evening.
Ivory Coast 1-0 Bafana Bafana
Aston Villa forward Jonathan Kodjia scored the only goal of the game to give Ivory Coast a hard-fought 1-0 victory over South Africa in their Africa Cup of Nations tie in Cairo.
Kodjia made up for missing a gilt-edged chance in the first half with a 65th-minute winner in the Group D contest after being set up by former Leeds player Max Gradel.
Captain Thulani Hlatshwayo had South Africa’s best chance of the first half, but headed wide from close range in the 25th minute when Percy Tau clipped the ball to the near post after Ivory Coast failed to clear a corner.
Ivory Coast came close to breaking the deadlock twice in the space of a minute, with Nicolas Pepe crashing a free kick off the crossbar before Kodjia was clean through on goal after pouncing on a poor defensive header from Hlatshwayo, only to smash his shot straight at goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.
Kodjia made no mistake with his next chance in the second half, stabbing home Gradel’s first-time cross after being left in acres of space by the South African defence.
South Africa rarely threatened to find an equaliser but felt they should have had a late penalty when substitute Lars Veldwijk went down in the area under a challenge from Thamsanqa Mkhize.
Angola 1-1 Tunisia
Angola marked their first appearance in the Africa Cup of Nations since 2013 with a well-deserved point against Tunisia in Group E.
Angola head coach Srdjan Vasiljevic believes his side are ready to cause a surprise in the tournament and they look more than capable of doing so after recovering from going a goal down in sweltering conditions in Suez.
Wilson Eduardo had the best chance in the first half for Angola but dragged his volley wide in the 20th minute before Tunisia took the lead just after the half hour from the penalty spot.
A swift break ended with Naim Sliti cutting inside and being brought down by a reckless sliding tackle from Paizo, with Youssef Msakni making no mistake from 12 yards.
Tunisia appeared content to sit on their lead and were made to pay in the 73rd minute when Mateus’ tame shot was palmed by goalkeeper Farouk Ben Mustapha into the path of Djalma, who had the simple task of side-footing the ball into an empty net.
That at least sparked Tunisia back to life and former Sunderland player Wahbi Khazri curled an effort narrowly wide before Msakni shot straight at goalkeeper Tony Cabaca in the first minute of injury time.
Mali 4-1 Mauritania
Mail opened their Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a resounding 4-1 triumph over Mauritania at the Suez Stadium.
Mauritania, who are making their debut in the competition in Egypt, at least had one moment to cheer about in their Group E clash as they scored their first goal thanks to Moctar El Hacen’s 72nd-minute spot kick.
Mali initially struggled to breach the Mauritania defence but broke the deadlock in the 37th minute when Abdoulay Diaby cut inside from the right wing and found the top-right corner with a powerful 25-yard effort.
The Eagles doubled their advantage on the stroke of half time when Lassana Coulibaly was felled by Mauritania goalkeeper Brahim Souleymane in the penalty area, with Porto striker Moussa Marega slotting home the spot kick.
Mauritania proved why they are ranked 103rd in the world after some slack defending let Monaco midfielder Adama Traore jink his way to the edge of the area before drilling into the bottom corner to make it 3-0 in the 55th minute.
El Hacen’s penalty gave Mauritania fans some joy but Orleans forward Adama Traore restored Mali’s three-goal cushion just two minutes later with a superb curling effort as Mohamed Magassouba’s side eased to a one-sided victory.
