Africa-Press – Senegal. The national football teams of Senegal and Benin will oppose each other this Saturday for the eighth time since 1982, for a record of six victories for the Lions who have so far not registered the slightest setback against the Cheetahs.
The draw is the best result obtained by the Beninese team against that of Senegal in the last 41 years.
The Lions have scored a total of eleven goals against the Cheetahs against four against, since the first friendly meeting between the two teams in 1982 in a friendly. Senegal won 1-0.
The Lions and the Squirrels, who became the Cheetahs in August 2022, will meet again in April 2000, 18 years after their last meeting, for the needs of the preliminary rounds of the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
Senegal took out Benin, winning (1-0) in Dakar, after forcing their opponent to share the points (1-1), during the first leg of this match counting for the first round of 2002 World Cup qualifiers.
Lions and Cheetahs will then face each other twice in friendly, in February 2007 in Rouen (France) and in January 2008 in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). These two meetings had turned in favor of Senegal and on the same score of 2 goals to 1.
More than 10 years later, in 2019, the two teams played in the quarter-finals of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) in Egypt. The Lions beat the Cheetahs for the fifth time and eliminated them, for the second time, from an official competition.
The last match between the two nations dates back to June 4, 2022, on the first day of the CAN 2023 qualifiers scheduled in Côte d’Ivoire (January 13-February 11, 2024). Kalidou Koulibaly’s teammates had won this new confrontation (3-1), thanks to a hat-trick from Sadio Mané (12e, 22e and 60e). Junior Olaitan reduced the score for Benin in the 88th minute of the game.
Senegal scored, on all of these matches against Benin, eleven goals in total against four conceded.
Aliou Cissé’s protégés have already validated their ticket for the next CAN. They are at the top of their pool, group L, with 12 points in total, four wins in as many matches, 10 goals scored and two conceded.
Benin sit third in this group with four points on the clock, with Mozambique and Rwanda ranked second and fourth with four and two points respectively.
Pour plus d’informations et d’analyses sur la Senegal, suivez Africa-Press
