Yves Bissouma changed the pitch just before regular time ended and thus played the entire overtime.
After the match, Mali’s national team captain revealed that two of the team’s players had contracted malaria, early in the championship. One Moussa Diarra and the other Tottenham midfielder Yves Bissouma.
– Yves and Moussa have suffered from malaria according to blood tests. It was not that serious for Bissouma, he who was born in West Africa is used to malaria, says the coach after the match.
The Rattlesnake Tournament
This year’s edition of the African championships has been the tournament of the loudest. Many favorite nations have left the tournament early, including Morocco and Senegal who both went out in the round of 16.
One of the teams that made it a step further, to the quarter-finals, is Mali. With players like Hamari Traoré in Real Sociedad and Yves Bissouma in Tottenham, the team’s journey ended on Saturday. They then fell against the home team Ivory Coast after extra time. This despite playing with one more man for almost ninety minutes when the former Hammarby defender Olilon Kossounou was sent off. The match ended 2-1 to Ivory Coast after extra time.
The semi-final teams are ready. Nigeria will be pitted against South Africa at the same time as the home nation Ivory Coast will have to defeat the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
