<\/p>\n
Mane scored from the spot in the 83rd minute to win the match for Senegal<\/strong><\/p>\n A SADIO Mane penalty seven minutes into stoppage time yesterday enabled a lacklustre Senegal to beat Zimbabwe 1-0 as both sides opened Group B in Bafoussam.<\/p>\n Defeat was harsh on Zimbabwe who had made Senegal, one of the tournament favourites, look distinctly ordinary.<\/p>\n In the fourth minute of stoppage time, Kelvin Madzongwe was adjudged to have handled the ball as he turned his back on a strike from substitute Pape Gueye.<\/p>\n Liverpool\u2019s Mane rifled home to give Senegal the perfect start to the group.<\/p>\n Featuring a side shorn of several players, including captain Koulidalou Koulibaly and Edouard Mendy, because of Covid, the Senegalese had earlier missed a host of chances.<\/p>\n The best fell to midfielder Gana Gueye shortly before half-time but the Paris St Germain star could not control an easy pass from Mane with the goal beckoning.<\/p>\n Mane himself had been denied earlier in the half when shooting straight at Zimbabwe goalkeeper Petros Mhari, who impressed, after wriggling into space in the box.<\/p>\n Senegal came into this tournament seeking a first Nations Cup crown after losing the 2019 final to Algeria, but were only able to name 17 players out of a squad of 28 because of several Covid cases.<\/p>\n The West Africans started the lunchtime kick-off in impressive fashion, with Bayern Munich\u2019s Bouna Sarr striking a low shot just inches wide before Keita Balde also failed to hit the target when he had time on the ball.<\/p>\n \n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mane scored from the spot in the 83rd minute to win the match for Senegal A SADIO Mane penalty seven minutes into stoppage time yesterday enabled a lacklustre Senegal to beat Zimbabwe 1-0 as both sides opened Group B in Bafoussam. Defeat was harsh on Zimbabwe who had made Senegal, one of the tournament favourites, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":745374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[473,1279,1280,1281],"class_list":["post-745373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-day","tag-mane","tag-saves","tag-senegal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}