Fofana scores first as Elephants win AFCON opener
Seko Fofana got Cote d'Ivoire's Africa Cup of Nations campaign off the perfect start, scoring the first goal of the tournament to set the host nation on its way to a 2-0 victory over Guinea Bissau.
Jean-Philippe Krasso scored a brilliant second as the hosts went top of Group A in energy-sapping humidity.
Fofana blasted home in the fourth minute from the edge of the box before Krasso made up for an earlier miss when he acrobatically netted a second just before the hour to the delight of the majority of a 60,000-strong crowd.
The Elephants were always favourites against a Guinea Bissau team that has not won any of its 10 Africa Cup of Nations finals matches.
Two-time winner Cote d'Ivoire will face a much sterner test on Friday (AEDT) when it meets Nigeria in the biggest match-up in the group, while Guinea-Bissau has a match with Equatorial Guinea to look forward to on the same day.
Fofana’s opener was the result of a defensive lapse by the visitors, who gave the ball away in a dangerous position allowing the Manchester City academy graduate to latch onto Franck Kessie’s low pass and whip the ball past Guinea Bissau goalkeeper Ouparine Djoco into the top corner.
Fofana nearly doubled his side’s advantage when he forced Djoco into a brilliant fingertip save, the keeper getting enough contact to push against the crossbar and out of danger.
Despite a decent start from Guinea Bissau, which had its chances and made it perhaps a closer contest than some expected for a side 54 places above them in FIFA’s world rankings, the home nation continued to control proceedings after the break.
Another Guinea-Bissau error led to Krasso’s alert effort as he patiently controlled the ball on a bounce inside the area before volleying low into the right corner to seal the result.
