Senegal coach Pape Thiaw was inundated with questions about Sadio Mane after an unsatisfactory AFCON opener.

Senegal beat Botswana 3-0, but it should’ve been more with a massive 28 shots to four.

Nine of those went to Al Nassr’s Mane, and Thiaw was asked about dropping him for younger talent post-match.

“A player like Sadio Mané knows what to do, I don’t even need to judge him,” he responded.

“He’s someone who is very important to the team, we know his abilities, we know what he can bring to us.

“I’ll say it again here, he’s our Cristiano Ronaldo and our Messi.”

On the overall performance he added: “We know it’s important to start the first match of a competition well.

“We saw that the boys really wanted this victory. They played very well, congratulations to them.

“Even though we could have scored more goals, what I take away from this is the seriousness of my team.”