Didier Drogba’s talismanic qualities helped Ivory Coast make a winning, if not impressive, start to the Africa Cup of Nations finals as he scored the only goal against a stubborn Sudan, while Angola beat Burkina Faso 2-1 in Sunday’s other match in Malabo.
Drogba extended his scoring streak at the Cup of Nations to a fourth successive tournament as he took his overall tally to eight, with a 38th-minute header to leave Sudan empty-handed.
Ivory Coast, heavily favored to take the continental title at the tournament co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, share the early lead in Group B.
Photo: EPA
The Chelsea player was quick to admit the nature of Ivory Coast’s triumph against a side ranked more than 100 places below them was anything but impressive.
“I’m just very happy we got the points,” said the 33-year-old, whose role in Ivory Coast’s failure in the three previous tournaments to live up to their favorites tag has been extensively highlighted in the buildup to the latest edition. “We did some things well and some things not so well, but the main thing was that we won the match.”
The goal was a trademark Drogba effort, timing his run and jump perfectly to deliver a forceful header from close range from a cross by Chelsea teammate Salomon Kalou.
Gervinho might have scored a second after the break after a slip by Sudan goalkeeper Mahjoub El Moez, who recovered in time to prevent the ball crossing the line.
Sudan proved anything but overawed and only the faintest of touches by Ivory Coast goalkeeper Boubacar Barry prevented Mudather Tayeb from equalizing just minutes after Drogba’s opener.
Sudan will feel they still have a chance to advance to the last eight, even though they have not won a match at the tournament since 1970.
They would likely need to win against both Angola and Burkina Faso, who shared three goals in a lively second half after an opening 45 minutes of aimless running.
Defensive slips cost Burkina Faso dear, allowing first Mateus to score and then former Manchester United striker Manucho to grab the winner.
In between, Alain Traore, only passed fit on the eve of the match, netted a stunning, but ultimately fruitless, long-range free-kick for Burkina Faso.
Malabo’s Estadio Nuevo, which has a 16,000 capacity, was far from full, reflecting high ticket prices for the event.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed