🌍 Ivory Coast dump AFCON holders Algeria out in the group stage | OneFootball

Ivory Coast claim top spot in Group E after beating reigning Africa Cup of Nations champions Algeria 3-1 on Thursday.

Scorers: Kessié 22′, Sangaré 39′, Pépé 54′; Bendebka 73′

Despite sitting at the bottom of Group E prior to the match, Algeria still had a chance to potentially reach the knockouts in their final group stage match against Ivory Coast.

However, the reigning champions lacked any bite in their performance and their opponents were exactly the opposite, playing with heaps of energy and some clinical finishing skills.

Franck Kessié’s darting run into the box kick-started the party for 1-0 before a header from an un-marked Ibrahim Sangaré doubled the lead just before the break.

Down by two, the match wasn’t necessarily out of reach for Algeria but Nicolas Pépé went on to smash the ball in the net for 3-0 shortly after the restart.

Things would then go from bad to worse for the holders after Riyad Mahrez was handed a chance to pull one back from the penalty spot but struck his effort off the post.

Yet their motivation wasn’t completely drained, and Sofiane Bendebka came off the bench to make things 3-1 with roughly 15 minutes to go.

The gap, however, proved to be too large and despite dying efforts from Yacine Brahimi and Islam Slimani, the reigning champions exit the tournament in the group stages with just one point to their name.

Elsewhere…

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