Tanzania dominate Burkina Faso to win CHAN opener

2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN) co-hosts Tanzania got off to a flying start with a 2-0 victory over Burkina Faso in Group B to kick off the competition at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam.

It was a dominant performance from the Taifa Stars, who controlled proceedings from beginning to end over the Stallions of Burkina Faso who could have lost by a greater margin. The Burkinabe selection was placed under siege from kickoff and only the outstanding efforts of Stallions goalkeeper Ladji Sanou kept his team in the match.

After making several saves in the first half, however, Burkina Faso could not quite escape to halftime. With stoppage time approaching, Tanzania forward Clement Mzize ran onto a pass in the penalty area and was tripped up by a sliding challenge from Franck Aimé Tologo, prompting Algerian referee Lotfi Boukouassa to point to the spot. Abdul Hamisi Suleiman made no mistake on his spot kick to open the scoring.

Burkina Faso showed a bit of improvement but it was only the efforts of Sanou who kept some suspense in the match. The AS SONABEL keeper produced a couple of brilliant saves, most notably an outstanding save with his foot to deny Suleiman from a second goal in the 61st minute.

However, the breakthrough would arrive for the co-hosts to put the result beyond doubt and it was a moment of madness from Sanou that allowed the second goal. Coming far off his line and out of his box in a vain attempt to close down the cross, Iddy Nado floated his service up for Simba SC defender Mohamed Hussein to head into an empty net for the first Tanzania goal in his long national team career.

Tanzania next face Mauritania on Wednesday (20:00 East African Time, 17:00 GMT) after Burkina Faso take part in an earlier match at the same venue against Central African Republic.