I hate international football.
And the idea of a tournament in the middle of the season just seems silly to me - take that 2022 World Cup! But the Africa Cup of Nations is one of those international fixtures that actually means something, so I’ll deal with it. Tottenham Hotspur actually have two representatives at the tournament in the form of Pape Matar Sarr and Yves Bissouma, representing Senegal and Mali, respectively - with Mohammed Kudus’ Ghana failing to qualify.
Both have seen success at the tournament thus far, with both Mali and Senegal qualifying for the latter stages of the competition, albeit in very different circumstances. Senegal, one of the favorites for the trophy, cruised comfortably through the group stages, with a draw against Democratic Republic of the Congo the sole blemish on their record as they kept clean sheets in wins against both Benin and Botswana. They then eased past Sudan in the Round of 16 with a 3-1 win after an early scare when Sudan opened the scoring. Unfortunately for Sarr (but fortunately for Spurs) Sarr’s involvement in these matches thus far has been limited, making only a solitary appearance as he started and played 81 minutes in the 3-1 win over Benin.
It’s been a very different story though for Bissouma’s Mali. They have somehow managed to reach the quarter finals while winless in regulation time through the entire tournament, drawing every match in the group stage and then progressing past the Round of 16 via penalty shootout over Tunisia. Bissouma, as Mali’s captain, has seen much more action than his Spurs teammate at AFCON thus far, but has had to bide his time as he has worked his way back from an ankle injury.
Missing from the squad in Mali’s first match against Zambia, he then returned to the starting XI against Morocco, playing just under an hour, and then steadily increasing his minutes across the next two matches. That culminated in a mammoth 120-minute effort in that Tunisia match, where he stepped up to take a penalty in the shootout only to blaze his effort into Row Z, bringing to mind some comments from Ange Postecoglou a couple of seasons ago:
“…Bissouma I have seen take about 500 and miss about 495…”
Those results have now brought the clubmates on a collision course in the quarter finals, with Mali set to play Senegal later today. That presents itself as both good and bad news for both players and club: one of the players is guaranteed to progress, which is fantastic for them; and one of them is guaranteed to return to North London, which is fantastic for the club - the bad news for the club being that the player likely to return is Yves Bissouma as opposed to Pape Matar Sarr, with the Malian captain seemingly not in Thomas Frank’s plans at this stage. It is possible though that the current injury crisis could cause Frank to reconsider his options on this front, and any reinforcements right now are good reinforcements.
Good luck to both Yves and Pape - may the best side win!
I still hate international football.