Thursday Jun 06, 2024. 20:43
Mauritania were unable to make the most of home ground advantage against Sudan as they lost 2-0 to the nation in their CAF 2026 World Cup qualifier at the Stade de la Capitale on Thursday evening.
The result means that Sudan are still the leaders of Group B, and now have seven points to their name. For the hosts, they remain bottom of the standings and still have not managed to pick up a win with only one point after three matches played.
The match began with Sudan looking like the more dangerous team, as Mauritania took a bit of time to settle into the match. By the 15th minute, Sudan drew first blood through Saif Thierry as a well-worked free kick found its way into the penalty area and he headed it home.
As the match progressed, it looked as though Mauritania had recovered well from conceding early, but they were caught napping in a counter-attacking manoeuvre that led to Aly Abeid scoring an own goal in the 29th minute as the home team now trailed by two goals.
It was an unwanted stain on Abeid, who plays for Romanian club CFR Cluj, he was also part of the team that played in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations as the Lions of Chinguetti made their first appearance in an international tournament.
By the 38th minute, Mauritania almost found themselves conceding once again but goalkeeper Babacar Niasse was alert and slid in to deal with the danger effectively in the box. At half-time, Sudan were leading comfortably and left the hosts with plenty of work to do.
It proved to be a frustrating day for Mauritania as they looked to be the better team and held more possession than their opponents. Making four changes after the break, it was clearly an effort from coach Amir Abode to change the pattern of the game.
With 10 minutes remaining of normal time, Abdallahi Mahmoud who had come off the bench tried his luck in an attacking move but his effort went over the crossbar. It was a quiet second half for Sudan, but they carried through their lead well and grabbed all three points.
Mauritania 0
Sudan 2 (Thierry Maki 15’, Abeid 29’ OG)
Mauritania: H. Tanjy (S. Amar 56’), A. Kamara (P. Ba 80’), B. Mouhsine, B. Niasse, A. Koita, Y. Delhi, I. Keita, A. Abeid (K. Diaw 46’), L. Ba, M. Souied (A. Mahmoud 46’), G. Fofana
Sudan: Y. Mohamed, M. Karshom, A. Omer, M. Mustafa Mohamed, B. Khamis (A. Yousif 76’), A. Abdalla (E. Alsini 89’), W. Khidir, S.Thierry (A. Mohamed 75’), M. Abdel-Rahman (S. Ali 76’), R. Agab
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