Bounedjah stunned the Lions of Teranga with a shot which took a wicked deflection off Salif Sane and looped over the bewildered goalkeeper Alfred Gomis and into the net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Algeria, who committed 32 fouls according to official match statistics, sat back after that and had to scrap for their win in a match that was certainly not a classic but was tense and gripping throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senegal, beaten by Cameroon on their only previous appearance in the final in 2002, were awarded a penalty for handball in the second half but the decision was revoked following a VAR review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final whistle provoked wild celebrations among the large contingent of travelling Algeria fans. It was a fitting end to a tournament that, with 24 teams for the first time, produced plentiful drama even if quality was sometimes lacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senegal were missing Kalidou Koulibaly, arguably Africa’s finest defender, through suspension and his absence was quickly felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The game got off to an extraordinary start when Bounedjah collected the ball, burst forward and unleashed a shot that took a wicked deflection off Sane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gomis stayed rooted to the spot, seemingly thinking that the ball was going out, but it dipped under the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Algeria sat back and allowed Senegal to claw their way back into the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They had a major let off in the second half when Ismaila Sarr burst down the right and fired a low cross into the middle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It struck Adlene Guedioura’s arm and, although it seemed impossible for the Algerian to get out of the way, the referee pointed to the spot but then changed his mind after a VAR review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Algeria had another let off shortly afterwards. Cheikhou Kouyate sent Mbaye Niang clear and he took the ball around Rais Mbolhi but shot into the side-netting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Youssouf Sabaly then produced a vicious dipping shot which Mbolhi did well to tip over the bar before Sarr volleyed over with the goal at his mercy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Algeria won the Africa Cup of Nations for the second time on Friday when a freak second-minute goal by Baghdad Bounedjah gave them a 1-0 win over gallant Senegal in the final. Bounedjah stunned the Lions of Teranga with a shot which took a wicked deflection off Salif Sane and looped over the bewildered goalkeeper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=999"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1723,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999\/revisions\/1723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}