Ivory Coast vs Senegal

Eleven years ago, Senegal had to go through the toughest qualifying group to reach its first FIFA World Cup. Now, Senegal has to go through the toughest opponent to reach the African Cup of Nations (AFCON): Ivory Coast, the runners-up from AFCON 2012.

2002 almost seems like a distant memory for Senegal. In that year, not only did Senegal reach the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup, but months prior to that event, Senegal reached the AFCON final. Ten years have passed, and Senegal is looking to recapture the glorious year of 2002.

Even with some of the players from that World Cup team, such as Souleymane Camara, Senegal has struggled on the football. The country finished fourth at AFCON 2006, despite losing two of their three group stage games. Senegal only advanced by virtue of tiebreakers against both Ghana and Zimbabwe.

Senegal exited AFCON 2012 on the back of three 2-1 losses against Zambia, Equatorial Guinea and Libya to finish last in Group A.  Despite the setback, some of Senegal’s players would play at the Olympics in Great Britain, for while Senegal reached the quarterfinals.

Key players hoping to shine include Moussa Konate, who finished second in scoring with five goals, Souleymane Camara, one of the members of Senegal’s squad that reached the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup, and Mamadou Niang, who led Senegal in scoring in qualifying for AFCON 2012 with five goals.

The Ivory Coast, on the other hand, is one of the few favorites to reach AFCON 2013 and win its second AFCON title. Despite winning 13 of 21 AFCON games since 2006, the Ivory Coast has not won AFCON since 1992. Twice since 2006 did the Ivory Coast reach the final, and twice the Ivory Coast lost on penalty kick. The last AFCON tournament was especially gut-wrenching for the Ivory Coast: its goalkeepers Boubacar Barry and Daniel Yeboah did not allow a goal at all during this past AFCON.

The first player that often comes to mind regarding the Ivory Coast is Didier Drogba. Having recently signed for Shanghai Shenhua in China, Drogba leads all active Ivorian scorers with 55 goals, while Didier Zokora has appeared in 103 matches. These two players have helped the Ivory Coast not only reach its first World Cup in 2006, but also helped the Ivory Coast to be the number one ranked African team in the FIFA World Rankings, in a country that was one in a bitter civil war.

In qualifying for AFCON 2012, Drogba scored four goals and Gervinho scored another three goals as the Ivory Coast won all six of its qualifying matches. Gervinho was also the player who missed what would be a costly penalty in the final that allowed Zambia to win the shootout and deny the Ivory Coast another AFCON title by virtue of a shootout.

On the road to Brazil 2014, the Ivory Coast managed a 2-0 victory against Tanzania and tied Morocco 2-2. More recently, the Ivory Coast tied 1-1 with Russia. Senegal, on the other hand, won 3-1 at home against Liberia, followed by a 1-1 tie against Uganda.

One of these strong African nations will suffer the agony of not reaching AFCON 2013. Who will survive this heavyweight bout? The answer will come this October.