Zambia produced an excellent first half display to beat one of the pre-tournament favourites Senegal 2-1 in their opening Group A clash at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday night.
The match at the Estadio de Bata was a thrilling affair, with Zambia dominant in the opening period, before Senegal fought back in the second half.
Goals from Emmanuel Mayuka and Rainford Kalaba inside 20 minutes put Chipolopolo on the road to victory, before Dame N’Doye set up a nervy finish with a lone replay for the Senegalese.
It was a superb first-half performance from Zambia, who used their pacey forwards to get behind the Senegalese defence on a number of occasions.
The warning signs were there early on when Kalaba found space on the left and his ball into the box was weakly met by Chris Katongo, who could only toe-poke the ball into the arms of a grateful Bouna Coundoul in the Senegal goal.
There was nothing the keeper could do about the opener, which was simple in its execution.
A long free-kick was floated into the area and when the ball was headed back across the box there were three Zambians waiting to turn the ball home. In the end Mayuka had the honour and he headed past Coundoul.
Senegal have a sizeable height advantage over Chipolopolo so they could have been expected to dominate in the air. In this instance it was poor organisation that let them down.
Zambia should have gone up 2-0 just a few minutes later as Kalaba got behind the defence, but Coundoul rushed out of his goal to clear. The loose ball eventually fell to Katongo, who saw his effort deflected over the crossbar in a lucky escape for Senegal.
But the Zambians did have their second soon afterwards as Kalaba beat the offside trap for the third time after being played in by Katongo. He rounded Coundoul before side-footing into an empty net.
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Mayuka forced the goalkeeper into another fine save just before half-time, before Kalaba was wrongly given as offside when put through on goal.
The second half was all Senegal, who would have received a verbal battering from coach Amara Traoré at the break.
Moussa Sow had a great chance to pull one back after he was teed-up by Issiar Dia, but could only scoop his effort over the bar.
Mohamed Diame then glanced a header wide for Senegal, who continued to attack as Zambia went into their shell to try and protect what they had.
Demba Ba shot just wide mid-way through the half, before going even closer after being set-up by new Newcastle United teammate Pappis Cisse, but he could only steer his header onto the woodwork.
The goal Senegal had been threatening finally came as N’Doye received Guirane Ndaw’s long free-kick, chested the ball down and fired past a helpless Kennedy Mweene.
N’Doye thought he had a penalty late on but his protests were waved away. The final chance of the game fell to Dia, whose heavy first touch allowed Mweene to save with the final play of the game.
