Guinea bounced back from a heartbreaking opening match defeat to defeat Republic of Congo 3-1 on Tuesday in Rabat at the 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations. Aguibou Camara and Salifou Soumah scored for the Syli National who pulled away from their opponents in the second half following a red card to Congolese goalkeeper Dhody Foutou. Guinea will need another positive result in their final Group A match against Ghana on Friday and Congo are eliminated from contention to advance ahead of a duel with hosts Morocco.
The Guinean team were the favorites and showed their quality early on by scoring in the 10th minute. A goal kick was flicked on by striker Algassime Bah for Olympiacos attacker Camara to run onto and the Guinea star brilliantly looped his shot over Foutou after observing that the goalkeeper was far off his line.
Congo fought back after Guinea failed to take advantage of a couple of chances to extend their lead. In the 38th minute the Red Devils leveled when a pass from midfielder Reich Kokolo led to a miscommunication between Guinea keeper Mory Keita and his defender, allowing an easy finish for Yann Ngatse to leave the teams even at halftime.
Within the opening ten minutes of the second half Guinea were back into the lead when Soumah got free on the right wing and his low cross was turned in by defender Jacques Bowamba for an own goal.
Foutou let his team down with a moment of madness towards the 70th minute by elbowing Mohamed Soumah in the side of the head after collecting the ball, an incident that led the Video Assistant Referee to determine a red card punishment as well as a penalty kick. Substitute keeper Chadrac Osseby did brilliantly to save the spot kick attempt from Bah but Guinea would find their third less than ten minutes later when Salifou Soumah was sent in on goal by a pass from fellow substitute Sekou Bangoura and curled his effort past Osseby.
Highlights of the match are below.
