Senegal’s young Lions are through to this year’s TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals after their 1-0 win over Benin at the Cairo International Stadium on Thursday.
The win also means they sealed a place at the U20 World Cup later this year. Malick Daf’s Teranga Cubs victory secured a second goal from captain Samba Diallo to beat the Cheetahs.
Diallo headed in from Lamine Camara’s brilliant free kick to send the West Africans to the semis and the World Cup.
The Young Teranga started the better side at the Cairo International Stadium, with Lamine Camara and Djibril Diop pulling the strings in midfield.
Senegal broke the deadlock six minutes into the second half through captain Samba Diallo’s diving header from a well-worked set piece.
The captain turned in Lamine Camara’s free-kick at the far post to beat the helpless Rahman Karim and hand Senegal a deserved lead.
Diallo should have doubled Senegal’s lead in 67 minutes when he fired straight at the woodwork from Sulaymane Faye’s intelligent pass.
Faye latched on to a long ball deep into the Benin half as Karim failed to clear to allow the youngster to square it to captain Diallo, who couldn’t convert it into an empty goal.
The Teranga Cubs continued to dominate, and Pape Diallo came close with a half volley late on, but Karim was well positioned to gather.
With time running out, substitute Stephane Vignigbe glanced a header wide for Benin as Senegal held on to qualify for the semi-finals and book a place at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia.
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