Senegal reap rewards of sticking with trailblazer Aliou Cisse with Afcon glory in sight

Manager has guided team to final in Cameroon and is one match away from becoming most successful coach in country’s history

Aliou Cisse has been manager of Senegal since 2015. AFP

Long-term loyalty to managers is not a characteristic for which African football is famed. Either side of their all-too-brief but dynamic stay at the Africa Cup of Nations, Nigeria announced two changes of manager, and there was still uncertainty on Thursday over who will guide them in next month’s World Cup play-offs against a Ghana team also bedding in a new boss.

To stay in the post of national manager for 70 games, the milestone Aliou Cisse will reach with Senegal in Sunday’s Afcon final, makes him a rarity.

He is also a native of the team he leads, which marks him out as unusual on a continent where the first instinct among leading clubs and the more successful federations seems to be to hire coaches from abroad, usually from Europe. It means that, since he was appointed in 2015, Cisse has been obliged to speak as a pathfinder, asked countless times why he stands out, being from Sub-Saharan Africa and in charge of a sub-Saharan national team.

“You need to put that to the directors of football around Africa,” he tends to reply. “I’m convinced there are many good coaches on our continent.”

Cisse is one match away from being regarded as not just a very good coach but the greatest in his country’s history, and it is a measure of his federation’s confidence in the 45-year-old that whenever he has fallen just short of a legacy achievement they have stuck with him.

He was the second manager to have led the country to a World Cup finals, but could not emulate the first — a Frenchman, the late Bruno Metsu — by taking Senegal deep into the knockout phase. In Russia in 2018, Senegal were stuck in their group by the narrowest of margins, the ‘fair-play’ tiebreaker: they had collected two more yellow cards in their matches than Japan, with whom they were level on points and goal-difference.

Afcons have tantalised Cisse. In 2017, there was a quarter-final defeat to the eventual champions, Cameroon. His next ended in a 1-0 loss to Algeria in the final.

Cisse’s playing experience armed him with the tools to respond to those setbacks. In 2002, he was captain of the talented Senegal who lost an Afcon final to Cameroon; five months later they made history at the World Cup by defeating France in the opening match and advancing to the last eight.

Cisse marshalled their tenacious midfield, and it was hard not to recall the vigour of his tackling when that count-up of yellow cards dented his first World Cup campaign as a manager. When he began a four year spell in the English Premier League in the mid-2000s, Cisse gained notoriety: he received two yellow cards — one later rescinded — on his debut for Birmingham City, and soon afterwards embarked on a sequence in which he was booked seven times in 10 games.

He can be tough on opponents still, as his verbal joust with Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp — with whom he shares the prized asset that is Sadio Mane — ahead of this Afcon showed. Klopp had unwisely referred to the tournament as “little”. Cisse, angered by the changing deadline for clubs releasing players for Afcon, chided the German and European clubs in general for their lordly attitude.

Burkina Faso 1 Senegal 3: player ratings

BURKINA FASO PLAYER RATINGS: Herve Koffi – 6. Bravely challenged for the ball in the air to punch away but took an elbow in the process that saw him forced off through injury. AFP

Steeve Yago – 6. Stopped several attacks and defended well for the most part, but he was unfortunate with Senegal’s third goal that effectively ended the game. AFP

Issoufou Dayo – 5. Beaten too easily by Mane for the second goal which left Burkina Faso with a mountain to climb. Reuters

Edmond Tapsoba – 6. The Bayer Leverkusen star was often the man to get in the way of balls coming into the box in what was a positive defensive display for most of the match against a tough opponent. AFP

Issa Kabore – 7. The 21-year-old handled Mane well for most of the game, with not too much coming down his flank. Picked up a crucial assist in the 83rd minute to provide Burkina Faso with a glimmer of hope. AFP

Adama Guira – 6. A yellow card from a mistake meant Guira would have missed the final had Burkina Faso qualified, but that was one mistake from an assured game from the 33-year-old midfielder who took good care of the ball. AP

Gustavo Sangare – 6. Played with the intention to trouble Senegal but the execution on the ball just wasn’t there on the night. Stoodout in his defensive duties and kept the opposition quiet for large parts of the game. AFP

Blati Toure – 7. Arrived late in the box and made no mistake with the finish past Mendy, halving the deficit for the final minutes of the game. AFP

Cyrille Bayala – 5. Involved in a head clash with Nampalys Mendy but didn’t seem to be too harmed, though he will be disappointed with some of his turnovers on the night. EPA

Bertrand Traore – 6. Looked most likely to make something happen when on the ball for Burkina Faso with confident dribbling in between defenders, but the Aston Villa star could rarely work the ball onto his favoured left foot. EPA

Hassane Bande – 6. Worked hard on both ends of the pitch in one of his country’s biggest occasions. Asked a question of Mendy in the first half but couldn’t beat him with a nearpost strike. AP

SUBS: Farid Ouedraogo (Koffi 36) – 5. A good save close to half-time denied Mane from putting Senegal ahead, but a tough second half saw him the back-up goalkeeper concede three times. AFP

Zakaria Sanogo (Bayala 60) – 6. Didn’t get the ball enough to make a positive impact in the 30 minutes he was on the pitch for. AP

Abdoul Tapsoba (Bande 81) – N/A. Came on and played directly but rarely found his intended target. AFP

Djibril Ouattara (Guira 81) – N/A. On for the final minutes but couldn’t influence the game. AFP

SENEGAL PLAYER RATINGS: Edouard Mendy – 7. Not troubled by too much but forced into a save by Hassan Bande who tried to catch the goalkeeper out at the near post. AFP

Saliou Ciss – 7. Looked to get forward often and had the opening chance of the game with a right footed strike that edged wide. Unlucky not to pick up an assist with an eloquently curved cross that Pape Gueye should have done better with. AFP

Abdou Diallo – 8. Took his time with the ball inside the box and finished with power past Farid Ouedraogo. AFP

Kalidou Koulibaly – 8. A powerful performance from Koulibaly who rarely looked flustered and produced a moment of magic with an overhead kick that turned into an assist for his centre-back partner Diallo. AP

Bouna Sarr – 6. May have been slightly lucky to remain on the pitch after an overzealous challenge in the second half, kept his opposite number quiet for the most part. AFP

Nampalys Mendy – 6. Suffered a head clash in the opening five minutes of the game. AP

Cheikhou Kouyate – 6. Provided the engine in the Senegal midfield. AP

Sadio Mane – 9. The Liverpool star always looked to want to make something happen and got better as the game went on. He worked space on the byline before cutting back for Senegal’s second goal, before putting the game out of sight with a delicate chip on his left foot late on. EPA

Idrissa Gueye – 6. Played further advanced than he does at club level but he still kept things fairly conservative when on the ball in promising areas. Often provided support to his defence to stop counter-attacks. AFP

Bamba Dieng – 7. Capped his performance off with a goal by anticipating Sadio Mane’s cross just before he was substituted, helping Senegal double their lead. AP

Famara Diedhiou – 6. Looked isolated and didn’t look involved in the game too much before being substituted for Ismaila Sarr. AP

SUBS: Pape Gueye (Kouyate 65) – 6. Introduced for Kouyate in the 65th minute and added enthusiasm, though his passes too often were intercepted. AFP

Ismaila Sarr (Diedhiou 65) – 6. An injection of pace helped Senegal play wider and increase the danger of their counter-attacks, but his best moment might have been when he controlled a stray ball carefully that could have turned into a handball in the final minutes. AFP

Pape Matar Sarr (Dieng 78) – N/A. On immediately after his side scored to provide fresh legs for the final minutes. AP

Pape Abou Cisse (Mendy 92) – N/A. Introduced for the final minutes but still picked up a booking. Reuters

Most coaches’ preparations were disrupted by late availability, Covid complications, and injuries. Cisse has paced Senegal’s campaign carefully around those obstacles. He is frequently criticised for his safe gameplans, and was again when his team came through the group phase having scored only one goal. But he sensed momentum would build once captain Kalidou Koulibaly was back from injury and Ismaila Sarr, the winger, from a long recuperation.

Sarr was a decisive substitute in the 3-1 knockout victories over Equatorial Guinea and Burkina Faso. Koulibaly’s overhead volley, leading to the opening goal against the Burkinabe showed he is back to his fully-mobile best.

A side built around the spine of Edu Mendy, the Chelsea goalkeeper, Napoli’s Koulibaly, Paris Saint-Germain’s Idrissa Gana Gueye and the electric Mane are formidable finalists, and, across Africa, many will be rooting for the Senegal-born coach.

Among those applauding Cisse is Pitso Mosimane, the manager whose Al Ahly squad will on Saturday take on Monterrey in Abu Dhabi for a place in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup. Mosimane, from South Africa, is the first coach from Sub-Saharan Africa to be in charge of the Cairo giants, and like Cisse, knows that makes him a pioneer.

“Africa must start employing Africans,” Mosimane posted, paying tribute to Cisse’s making it two Afcon finals in a row as a coach.

What Cisse will not want is another silver medal. He has a pair of them already from Afcons — more than enough.