Manchester United’s Amad Diallo scored the winner as Ivory Coast began defending its Africa Cup of Nations title with a deserved 1-0 win over Mozambique.
The Emerse Fae team, who are looking to become the first back-to-back champions at AFCON since Egypt won three consecutive titles between 2006 and 2010, were in control throughout the 90 minutes in Marrakech.
But they had to settle for one goal, as Amad held on to Franck Kessie’s knockdown and fired into the bottom left corner after 49 minutes.
The holders failed to make their superiority count in the first period, with Yan Diomande seeing a penalty waved away before Ghislain Konan fouled after Amad’s solo run down the right flank.
Mozambique’s Ernan Siluane also made a futile save to deny Kessie, who later planted a close-range header wide for a striking goal shortly after Amad opened the scoring.
Vakoun Bayo also missed a heading opportunity and saw another Guima attempt cleared off the line in the pouring rain as Ivory Coast jumped ahead in Group F, which also includes Cameroon and Gabon.
Data Debrief: another strong start for Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast have made a habit of starting strong at AFCON, and they are now undefeated in their last fourteen opening matches at the tournament (nine wins, five draws), having last lost on matchday one in 1996 (0-2 against Ghana).
They fully deserved Wednesday’s win after firing 15 shots with an expected goals value of 1.26, while Mozambique had four shots and 0.24 xG.
Mozambique has now never won sixteen matches at AFCON (four draws, twelve defeats) and has never even kept a clean sheet.
No other team has played as many matches at the tournament without ever tasting victory.
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