Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast emerge as group leaders in World Cup qualifiers

Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast leads groups in qualifiers

JOHANNESBURG, October 12 (ANA) – Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast have risen to the top of their respective Fifa World Cup qualifier groups following wins on Monday evening.

Burkina Faso beat Djibouti 2-0 in Marrakech to move top of Group A with 10 points, pending Algeria’s match against Niger on Tuesday, while Ivory Coast ran out 2-1 winners over Malawi to regain the lead in Group D with 10 points, one ahead of Cameroon who had earlier beaten Mozambique 1-0.

Midfielder Franck Kessie scored the winner for Les Elephants – as Ivory Coast are known – from the penalty spot in the 66th minute after Khuda Muyaba had cancelled out Nicolas Pepe’s early goal for the West Africans.

Ivory Coast had a perfect start in the match with Pepe hitting the back of the net in the second minute, after a blunder from Malawian defender Peter Cholopi who lost the ball and allowed the Arsenal man space and time to beat the keeper one-on-one.

But, Malawi were relentless as they showed some fight to get back into the game. They did so in the 20th minute when Muyaba struck low into the bottom left corner after Chikoti Chirwa had won the ball off Serge Aurier with a superb tackle.

Malawi were pressing Ivory Coast after the equaliser, and Aurier almost gave them a second goal when he tapped the ball against his keeper. However, Aurier made amends with a brilliant goal line block after Chester Yamikani had taken a shot at goal.

In the second half, Ivory Coast were rewarded for the chase with the second goal when Kessie scored from the spot, after Gervinho had been brought down inside the box by Dennis Chembezi.

The defender almost made amends on the other end in the 85th minute, but his point blank header unmarked at the back post was saved by the keeper. – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman