Senegal 2-0 Egypt
The Leopold Sedar Senghor Stadium in Dakar was hosting its first match in more than a year when it was shut down due to a ban from Caf following match incidents in 2012.
Thousands of local fans were in attendance to push Senegal over Egypt in Group G opener, which eventually went in favour of the host team in a 2-0 outcome.
By the 17th minute, Mame Biram Diouf was set up behind two Egyptian defenders, who were unable to stop the Stoke City forward’s final effort that blew past goalkeeper Sherif Ekramy.
A similar action brought the second goal for Senegal when Dame Ndoye of Lokomotiv Moscow laid a defence-splitting pass for Southampton new recruit Sadio Mane, who finished with a remarkable aplomb to seal his side’s 2-0 win over the Pharaohs, who failed to live up to expectation across much of the meeting.
Egypt will take on Tunisia next while Senegal will face off against Botswana in the second match day of the qualifying campaign.
Guinea 2-1 Togo
The Syli National humbled the Sparrow Hawks 2-1 at the Mohamed V Stadium in Casablanca on Friday in Group E first match in the 2015 Afcon qualifying.
Guinea were forced to play their first home match of competition in Morocco due to the outbreak of the Ebola disease, but eventually shrugged off the Togolese challenge despite an impressive input from Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor.
Syli took the lead after 10 minutes through a penalty transformed by Saidouba Soumah of Slovan Bratislava following a rough tackle on Naby Keita.
They were able to conserve the lone-goal advantage until added time of the first half thanks to a compact midfield that kept cutting off ball distributions from the Hawks, with their goalkeeper Kossi Agassa’s countless blunders spurring the Guinean attacking line into more action.
Zulte-Waregem striker Idrissa Sylla doubled the lead for Guinea seconds before the break but his side would suffer severe domination at the hands of Togo in second half, with Adebayor leading the onslaught.
Goalkeeper Naby Yattara singlehandedly thwarted efforts from the Togolese to come level until the 60th minute when Jonathan Ayite found a breach to pull one back. However, more pushy attempts to snatch the equaliser went futile even when Guinea went one man down following the expulsion of Toulouse defender Issiaga Sylla after bagging a second yellow card.
Togo will play host to Ghana in the second match day next weekend while Guinea will travel to face Uganda.
