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90 minutes for Cissé but Mali miss out on knockout stage
Ibrahima Cissé’s Olympic journey has come to an end. The Schalke centre-back’s Mali side were beaten 1-0 by Paraguay in their final group game on Tuesday, 30th July. Our number 22 was named in the starting line-up and played the full 90 minutes in Paris.
The winning goal came in the early stages of the match, when Marcelo Fernández of Club Libertad took down the ball and struck a spectacular effort into the corner from around 20 yards out in the fifth minute. Mali, who would have qualified for the quarter-finals with a victory, were unable to find an equaliser despite creating several good chances in the remaining 85 minutes plus injury time. Cissé himself had one of these opportunities, but was denied by the goalkeeper from close range after getting on the end of a cross in from the right (72’).
Paraguay therefore qualified for the knockout stage in second place behind Japan, while Mali in third and bottom side Israel are heading home. Cissé picked up valuable experience despite his team’s elimination. The 23-year-old played a total of 180 minutes over two matches, and impressed in both with a strong challenge success rate.
