After 29 years, Algeria has won the African Cup of Nations trophy after a narrow 1-0 win against Senegal.
An early Baghdad Bounedjah strike, two minutes into the game deflected on an opponent past the stranded Alfred Gomis (Senegal) to seal the victory for the now two-time champions.
The desert warriors had last won an AFCON trophy in 1990 – the year when they hosted.
Hunting their first-ever (Africa Cup of Nations) trophy, Senegal were desperate to make the tournament’s final day there’s, having the upper hand in most of the match stats.
With a 62% ball possession as opposed to Algeria’s 38%, Senegal looked a threat throughout the whole game.
As well, they recorded 11 more goal attempts than their opponents Algeria who managed only one.
Algeria’s goalkeeper also had the most saves to make in this tight encounter – registering three saves while Senegal’s Gomis had none.
This win now means that Algeria has won the tournament’s 32nd edition with a perfect record, winning every match in 90 minutes except one penalty shoot-out victory in the quarter-finals.
Appropriately, they have also opened the scoring in nine of their previous 12 Africa Cup of Nations tournament fixtures – the two they didn’t were the only ones they lost during that period.
For Aliou Cisse’s Senegal on the other hand, it’s their second final disappointment with the first being in Mali 2002 when Cisse, as the skipper, together with his countrymen lost another final to Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Odion Ighalo has won the tournaments’ golden boot with four goals.
By John Dalton Kigozi
