The African Cup of Nations came to a close for both Mali and Malawi after the Malians’ 3-1 win Monday.
A first minute goal from Frederic Kanouté was augmented two minutes later by Seydou Keita. Russel Mwafulirwa pulled Malawi within one early in the second, but a late goal from Mamadou Bagayoko gave Mali their ultimate margin of victory.
The result put the Malians in position to qualify for the quarterfinals, should Angola beat Algeria. The Foxes and Antelopes eventually acquiesced to a draw, leaving Mali out of the knock-out stage.
For Malawi’s part, the team was never able to build upon their opening match upset of Algeria, losing to Angola and Mali to close qualifying. They finish last in Group A.
The scoring opened with Kanouté taking advantage of a erroneous clearance by Malawi ‘keeper Swadic Sanudi. The Sevilla striker need only volley into an open net after the attempted clearance went straight to him.
Two minutes later Seydou Keita put a free kick from 31-meters out into the the upper left hand corner of goal, putting Malawi down 2-0 within the match’s opening three minutes.
Mali would continue to control the match throughout, with Keita proving especially dangerous. But despite several good shots on goal, the Malians were unable to add to their initial two goals before Malawi pulled one back.
The opening second half saw Malawi even play, with the pay-off coming in the 58th minute, when Mwaulirwa finished-off a sequence of shots, putting home a rebound to pull Malawi within one.
Afterwards, Mali would reaffirm control of the match, knowing they would need additional goals to win potential second-place tiebreakers. Thus, with the exception of Mwafulirwa heading over an open goal in the 72nd minute, Malawi looked less apt to find an equalizer than concede a decisive goal.
That goal did not come until the 85th minute, when Bagayoko headed home Mali’s final goal.
Mali ends the Cup of Nations with a 1-1-1 record, having scored seven goals in three matches. Malawi finished as expected beforehand, last, but acquitted themselves well in the process. Their final record was 1-0-2.
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