Four days after being surprised by Burkina Faso (1-1) in Dakar, Senegal had to go through a questionable penalty to overcome Burundi in Lilongwe (1-0). It is an important victory, but far from reassuring for the 2022 African champions are
How hard it was to get this goal and these three points against a tough Burundi team, without genius and with limited offensive ambition. Senegal beat Burundi (0-1), a logical and expected victory, but the way in which the Lions obtained the three points will be much talked about on the Hirondelles side. Etienne Ndayiragije’s men resisted for a long time, for more than an hour, before giving in on a controversial penalty. In the 69th minute in fact, the match referee penalized a high foot from a Burundian defender on Sadio Mané. But even after reviewing the images several times, we cannot help but talk about a “generous penalty”. The defender’s foot hits the ball which lands on Mané’s head, the foot does not touch the Senegalese striker. In addition, the action seems to take place outside the penalty area. This is a lot for the Burundians who are very angry with the Egyptian referee Mohamed Maarouf Eid.
Aliou Cissé increasingly criticized
For Senegal, who had all the trouble in the world finding the opening, this penalty was unexpected. Ismaïla Sarr did not hesitate to take his responsibilities and opened the score for his team (71st).
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- RFI
