![](\"http:\/\/arewa.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Egypt-vs-Zimbabwe-Pharaohs-release-powerful-AFCON-starting-XI-against-Warriors.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nMali now leads the group with three points, two more than Tunisia and Angola who played to a 1-1 draw earlier at the same venue.<\/p>\n
Mauritania follows in that order with no point.<\/p>\n
Mali Eagles were the better side from the start to the end, and capped a convincing performance with an important win that saw them move closer to the next round.<\/p>\n
Abdoulaye Diaby and Moussa Marega each scored within a span of eight minutes, and Adama Noss Traore added a third just after the break.<\/p>\n
Haven Al Ide scored from the penalty kick spot to give Mauritania a historic goal.<\/p>\n
But Adama Traore added the fourth for Les Aigles to hand Les Mourabitoune defeat in their first ever AFCON match.<\/p>\n
Boosted by their debut, Mauritania started the game in a speedy way but without threatening their opponents\u2019 defence.<\/p>\n
The game\u2019s first chance came after five minutes when a miscommunication between Mali\u2019s goalkeeper Djigui Diarra could have cost his team an own goal.<\/p>\n
But the ball was cleared for a corner kick.<\/p>\n
Mali\u2019s first chance fell to Diaby whose shot from outside the area missed the goal by a slim margin after nine minutes.<\/p>\n
Adams Traore tried to shoot from distance at the quarter hour mark but he saw his shot going wide.<\/p>\n
Once again Diaby tried his luck from outside area and found the same fate after 22 minutes.<\/p>\n
But Diaby was third time lucky after 38 minutes when his shot from outside the area left Mauritania goalkeeper Souleymane Diallo with no chance.<\/p>\n
And just before the break, Mali were two up.<\/p>\n
Diablo fouled Lassan Coulibaly inside the vital area leaving the referee with no option but to give Mali a penalty kick, from which Marega doubled the Eagles lead.<\/p>\n
Mauritania coach Corentin Martins introduced star player Moulay Ahmed \u201cBessam\u201d,trying to give the team new blood in attack.<\/p>\n
But it was Mali that added a third goal via Noss Traore.<\/p>\n
He received the ball from Diadie Samasekou and sent a curling shot to add to Mauritania woes after 55 minutes.<\/p>\n
Mauritania threw all men into attack, and could have scored after 70 minutes when Adama Ba rounded Mali\u2019s goalkeeper Djigui Diarra.<\/p>\n
However, Molla Wague tackled to save the situation.<\/p>\n
But Mauritania did have their historic first-ever AFCON goal after 72 minutes.<\/p>\n
Ismail Diakhite was fouled inside the area and from the resulting penalty kick Al Ide scored to give \u201cMourabitoune\u201d something to cheer about.<\/p>\n
But just two minutes later Mali added the fourth in grand style.<\/p>\n
Substitute Adama Traore sent a curling shot that went to the right corner to add a fourth for The Eagles.<\/p>\n
Mauritania tried hard to score again but the lively game ended with their first defeat, with Mali sending a threatening message to other teams in the group.\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Newcomers Mauritania were given an unpleasant welcome to their debut AFCON appearance as they lost to West African neighbours Mali 4-1 in their Group E game, Monday night in Suez. Mali now leads the group with three points, two more than Tunisia and Angola who played to a 1-1 draw earlier at the same venue. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}