Sadio Mane won’t be available for Senegal’s opening encounter at AFCON. The 27-years old striker was booked twice in AFCON qualifiers and now will bear the brunt of suspension.
Mane was charged with yellow cards in Senegal’s encounters against Equatorial Guinea and Madagascar. And this has resulted in a setback to Senegal’s chances in their opening match.
The coach looks confident and says that the exclusion of Mane won’t be lethal. But it would definitely play on the minds of his fellow team-men.
Sadio Mane had a very successful champion’s league season with Liverpool. He went on to score 26 goals this season to share the golden boot with Arsenals Pierre-Emerick and Muhammad Salah.
Mane has said in a very recent interview of his that he had a very good time with Liverpool and would continue to perform with the same zeal and zest. Mane made a great contribution in Liverpool’s European Champion League victory against Tottenham in Madrid.
AFCON 2019 is going to kick off on 22nd of this month. The hosts Egypt will take on Zimbabwe in the opening encounter. Senegal will play their first match on Friday, 23rd against Tanzania. Senegal is placed in group C along with Algeria, Kenya and Tanzania.
The AFCON grew in qualitatively and quantitatively since its inception in 1957. There were three participants in the first edition. The number increased with every edition and reached 16 since 1998.
Historical perspective:
For the very first time, 24 nations from Africa will clash for the biggest Football event of African origin. Egypt has dominated the scenes of AFCON to win seven titles. Egypt withdrew from AFCON in 1982. Ghana went on to win the title in 1982. Ghana beat the hosts Libya on penalty shoot outs to become the third time champions of AFCON.
