Mali opened their Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a controversial win over Tunisia to take an early lead in Group F.
The game, however, was marred with controversy.
Referees were escorted off of the pitch after the official appeared to blow for full-time after only 83 minutes and 43 seconds, drawing a furious reaction from the Tunisian bench.
It was a tale of two penalties as Ibrahima Kone converted his attempt after a handball, but Tunisia’s Wahbi Khazri could not follow suit as his effort was saved by Mali goalkeeper Ibrahima Mounkoro 13 minutes from time.
Zambia referee Janny Sikazwe initially blew for the end of the game with 85 minutes on the clock, his time keeping obviously poor. But after correcting himself he still ended the match in the 90th minute, despite a number of stoppages in the second half, including two VAR checks.
The result follows the trend of 1-0 win at the finals, with this the seventh in the 10 games played to date. The second match in Group F will be played later on Wednesday between Mauritania and Gambia.
AFCON 2021: Mali Kickoff Campaign With Win Over Tunisia
Austin Akhilomen
Augustine Akhilomen is a passionate sports content writer. A fan of the Super Eagles and Chelsea. My aim is to promote the game of sports globally.
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4 Comments
Mali do not have big players in Mancity , Man u, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Bacerlona but Tunisia have . How come Mali won? Rohr must be reeling in shame now. The man does not know that playing for a big club sometimes is by destiny or luck not because you are the best.
Na Rohr issue go kill u, because I don’t know what concerns Rohr with this news. However, that ref deserves a life ban, I have never seen a ref blowing final whistles before the 90mins in an international game like AFCON. Most of his calls are controversial, including the sending off. He is a disgrace to the ref world
Sikwase it whatever that Zambian is called is not new to controversies….. He has. Een suspended for some shady shit in the African champions league before now.
How he ended up been an official at AFCON beats my imagination