![\"Nigeria's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0023ab40-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nChelsea striker Nicolas Jackson scored twice as Senegal got their 2025 \u2060Africa Cup of Nations campaign off to a winning start with a comfortable 3-0 Group D \u200dvictory over Botswana in Tangier.<\/p>\n
Jackson converted Ismail Jakobs’ low cross to give his side the lead after 40 minutes as they broke the resistance of a stubborn Botswana, before showing quick feet from Ismaila Sarr\u2019s pass to finish from \u2060close range just before the hour-mark.<\/p>\n
Senegal, who won the Cup \u2060of Nations title in 2021 and are among the favourites again, \u2060overwhelmed \u200dtheir \u2060opponents with waves of attacks and added a third late \u200don from Cherif Ndiaye, one of \u206028 efforts on the Botswana goal.<\/p>\n
Senegal head Group D on goal difference from the Democratic Republic of Congo after \u200dthe opening round of games.<\/p>\n
DR Congo produced a dominant performance against \u200dBenin, although they only won Group D’s opening game 1-0.<\/p>\n
Theo Bongonda netted the goal in the 16th minute, letting a long pass from defence bounce and reacting quickest as the Benin defence hesitated to volley the ball into the \u2060net.<\/p>\n
He might have had a second 13 minutes later, \u2060side-footing towards the corner of the net but seeing his goalbound \u2060effort \u200dblocked \u2060by defender Olivier Verdon.<\/p>\n
The Congolese, twice continental champions, did \u200dhave the ball in the net \u2060two minutes into the second half as Cedric Bakambu easily headed home a pinpoint cross from Nathanael Mbuku, but \u200dafter a lengthy VAR check it was ruled offside.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ademola Lookman (above) scored a superb second-half winner as Nigeria earned a 2-1 Group C victory over Tanzania in the pouring rain in Fes, a positive start for the silver medallists from two years ago, but one that was not without moments of alarm.<\/p>\n
Nigeria were more dominant than the scoreline suggests in terms of possession and chances, but they failed to finish off the contest and were almost made to pay for their wastefulness in front of goal by their east African opponents.<\/p>\n
Semi Ajayi headed Nigeria in front in the first half before Charles M’Mombwa equalised five minutes after halftime.<\/p>\n
The Tanzanians’ joy lasted only two minutes, however, as Lookman fired in what proved to be the winner from outside the box.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson scored twice as Senegal got their 2025 \u2060Africa Cup of Nations campaign off to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-207423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}