Samba Diallo heads Senegal into FIFA U20 WC & U20 AFCON semi

Samba Diallo netted in the earlier stages of the second stanza to gift Senegal a spot in the U20 FIFA World Cup billed for May later – this year in Indonesia, and more importantly, sealed the Junior Teranga Lions a place in the semi of the TotalEnergies U20 Africa Cup of Nations.

The first quarter-final of the competition was a relatively cagy affair especially in the first half for both sides, as the men of Malick Daf found it tough to breakthrough a tight Beninese defense.

Senegal have heavily been fancied to win the tourney especially after they ran riot with a hundred percent win ratio in group A that consisted of hosts Egypt, tournament greats Nigeria and Mozambique.

The first real goal action came after the break from a nicely worked out set piece at the 51st minute.

Midfeilder Lamine Camara arrowed the ball into the area with deep and swerve as Diallo dived in with a header that looked at first sight a miscue, but it managed to bamboozle goalkeeper
Abdoul Aziz for one-nil.

Samba Diallo had a chance to see double at the 67th minute but all the Dynamo Kiev forward could do was clatter the bar.

Goalkeeper Abdul Aziz misjudged the flight of the ball and heavily collided with his center-half, Tamimou Ouorou. Mame Faye unselfishly queued the ball for Diallo who hit the woodwork.

Things almost got from bad to worse for Benin when Sègnon Stéphane was nearly shown red for a bad tackle on Djibril Diarra, but VAR adjudged to be yellow. Senegal held on to win and they will face the winner between Congo Republic and Tunisia in the semi on March 6.