In a thrilling encounter against the Ivorians, Leone Stars of Sierra Leone pulled off a fascinating comeback against The Elephants of Ivory Coast in a 2-2 draw, thanks to Alhaji Kamara’s late goal caused by a clumsy mistake by the Ivorian goalkeeper in the 90+3 minutes.
Sierra Leone is living the dream and spicing things up at the African Cup of Nations tournament after 26 years of absence. In their opening match, Sierra Leone held the defending champions Algeria to a goalless draw which earned them a spot in the hearts of millions of football-loving fans across the world.
AC Milan midfielder Franck Kessie had missed an early penalty for Ivory Coast which was saved by the in-form Sierra Leonean goalkeeper Mohamed N. Kamara before Sebastien Haller, who plays for Ajax and currently the top scorer in the UEFA Champions League, gave the Ivorians the lead after 25 minutes. But 21-year-old Musa Noah Kamara popularly known as Musa Tombo, who made his debut appearance at the AFCON tournament, equalized 10 minutes into the second half.
The Elephants of Ivory Coast became a thorn in the neck for the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone as they pushed a winning goal which came in the second half of the match with a beautiful curly left-footed strike by Arsenal most expensive signing Nicolas Pepe who restored his side’s lead. It all looked like winning for the Ivorians but the Lions from Sierra Leone showed bravery and resilient throughout the second half, and it paid off as 35-year-old Ivory Coast goalkeeper, Badra Ali Sangare, in the 90+3 minutes attempted to collect a fairly simple ball but caught his knee on the turf and fumbled the ball. The ball fell to the Sierra Leonean defender Steven Caulker, who exquisitely squared it to the substitute Alhaji M. Kamara. Despite falling over himself, Kamara, filled with bravery and courage managed to squeeze the ball home to equalize for Sierra Leone in a dramatic fashion.
