By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (August 5^th 2025)

Group D Match Day 1

The final round of group opening matches in Zanzibar’s Amani’s Stadium saw Kwesi Appiah’s Sudan hold Congo to a 1-1 draw and Sénégal beat Eric Chelle’s Nigeria 1-0 to top Group D. Before Musa Ali Hussein put Sudan ahead after 28 minutes thanks to a counter-attack down the right flank – a lead they held on to until less than five minutes from full time, Salaheldin Adil failed to direct his header goalward from a corner – he easily outjumped his defender but his header was poorly directed.

Sudan’s goal had a touch of good fortune. Ahmed Yousif Morzan broke down the right flank. His shot was parried into the path of Hussein who netted the rebound. Congo equalised through Carly Ekongo Landou after 86 minutes after a team-mate’s attempted turn to make space for the shot broke kindly to Landou who made no mistake with his shot to share the points.

Meanwhile the Teranga Lions beat the Super Eagles courtesy of a fortunate Christian Gomis’ goal after 75 minutes – Nigerian keeper, Lawal Mustapha made a terrible error that gifted the winner to Gomis. He rushed out of the area and failed to get the ball, allowing an easy pass to Gomis with the keeper stranded in no-man’s-land. It leaves the Super Eagles rooted to the bottom of Group D in a competition that they have never won, while the defending CHAN champions had a winning start to their defence.