Cote D’Ivoire on Thursday took Algeria to the cleaners and condemned the defending champions to a group stage exit.
The Elephants came into the game with four points after defeating Equatorial Guinea and slipping to a late draw against Sierra Leone. They however came out all guns blazing against Les Fennecs who had only picked a point. AC Milan midfielder, Franck Kessie scored the first goal for the Ivorians after good work from Nicolas Pepe on the right set him up for a well-placed finish.
Algeria, with a highly-disappointing outing in Cameroon, fell to a second goal on the 39th minute as the impressive PSV midfielder, Ibrahima Sangare scored the Ivorians’ second. Algeria huffed and puffed, failed to threaten the Ivory Coast defence and lost a lot of second balls.
On the 54th minute, Pepe was again in the mix as he worked out a good space before burying a curler beyond Mboli in the Algerian goal. At that point, there was no way back for the Algerians but a glimmer of hope soon rose when Younnes Bounedjah was obstructed in the box by Deli. The resultant penalty was missed by star man, Riyad Mahrez as his kick hit the upright. The only ray of light in the game had gone missing.
The Algerians pulled one back in the 73rd minute through Sofiane Bendebka but it was too little, too late, and saw Algeria bow out of the AFCON, almost three years after their success in 2019, with just a point and a goal after three games.
By far the favourites heading into the tournament, Algeria join Ghana as another casualty from the strong African bunch as both teams suffer exits as bottom of their respective groups.
Ivory Coast booked their place in the next round top of group E and are scheduled to face another North African team in Egypt in the next round of the competition.
