Gambia holds Mali to a 1-all draw.
The AFCON game between Gambia and Mali, at the 20,000-seat Stade Omnisport stadium, had a very slow start owing to the scorching 32 degrees’ Celsius heat coupled with 75 percent humidity.
Mali scored at the 79th minute from a confirmed VAR penalty scored by Ibrahima Kone.
Mali continued to be the more imposing of the two early in the game, resulting in a wide free-kick by Bissouma and Djenepo’s header saved by Modou Jobe, the Gambian Keeper.
Gambia came to the party when Musa Barrow unbridled a 35-metre free-kick shot that flustered the crossbar.
Mali’s goalkeeper, Ibrahim Mounkoro, had to thank his gods when Ablie Jallow’s shot hit off a post to deny the Gambians a goal.
Minutes into the second half, Mali got had three clear scoring chances in a very short space of time while Gambia got one. The breakthrough came for Mali when Kone took a penalty to send the Gambian goalkeeper the wrong way. In the 90th-minute penalty, Musa Barrow sent the Mali goalkeeper the wrong way to score a late equaliser that saw a 1-1 draw between Mali and Gambia.
The 1-all draw result affords both Mali and Gambia places in the second round of the continental tournament as group winners and runners-up are the qualifying teams for the round of 16 in each group in the AFCON.
New World News 