Africa Cup of Nations, Senegal 0-1 Algeria: 5 Hits and Flops as the Desert Warriors clinch first title in 29 years

#1 Flop - Chiekhou Kouyate

Kouyate made an error leading to the goal

As a result of Kalidou Koulibaly’s yellow card in the semifinal victory over Tunisia, it meant that Alou Cisse headed into the final without the services of his defensive lynchpin.

The Napoli man is one of the best center-backs in the world and replacing him was always going to be a tall order, much less when you’re not a defender by trade and this was exactly the situation Cheikhou Kouyate found himself in.

The Crystal Palace man is a midfielder by trade, but found himself performing defensive duties against Algeria as a result of Koulibaly’s absence.

His in-congruence with the role manifested itself as early as the second minute, as Kouyate was drawn out of position to win a ball high up the field, with his natural playing style seemingly getting the better of him.

His failure to win that ball meant he was caught out of position and left his team short staffed at the back, with the result being that Senegal found themselves a goal down before they knew what hit them.

While goalkeeper Gomis should have done better to stop the deflected effort, the entire scenario would have been avoided if Kouyate had maintained his defensive discipline and his early error proved to be a very costly one that Senegal failed to recover from.