Guinea 5 Bermuda 1

Bermuda were left to rue a moment of madness from Danté Leverock as they concluded their Fifa Series Saudi B campaign with defeat to Guinea at Abdullah Sports City, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Michael Findlay’s side were in contention to pull off a huge upset against a side who made it to the quarter-finals of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations after having the better of a first half in which Leverock cancelled out Morlaye Sylla’s opener.

However, the game turned on its head moments before the interval when Bermuda’s goalscorer was shown a straight red card for an attempted kick at Yasser Balde, who had initially appeared to stamp on Leverock to provoke the reaction from the centre-half.

Guinea, ranked 95 places higher in the Fifa world rankings, ruthlessly seized on their numerical advantage and produced a devastating second-half display with goals from Mohamed Bangoura, Kandet Diawara, substitute Jules Keita and Mamadou Kane.

Despite his obvious disappointment at the result, head coach Findlay remained philosophical in the wake of defeat.

“As a whole I was pleased, but it’s obviously just unfortunate when a game can be so heavily affected by losing a player of not only his [Leverock] experience, but also in his position,” Findlay said.

“It was always going to be a challenge facing a team ranked so much higher than us and then the sending off came at a time when we were competing incredibly well and should have been ahead.

“After that the second half was always going to be incredibly tough, but I was pleased with how the guys responded to the circumstances, because by no means did they throw the towel in.

“Danté is obviously disappointed. He is one the leaders of this team, but unfortunately he got caught up in the dark arts side of the game and reacted.

“He didn’t appear to actually make any contact, but it was the action that the referee saw. You could argue that there should have been action taken against the initial stamp, but the referee didn’t see that.

“Danté has held his hands up to the rest of the team and the coaching staff, and taken responsibility for his mistake.

“Taking all of the elements of the match into consideration, I’m pleased overall because particularly in that first half we showed no fear and definitely did ourselves justice.”

Against the run of play Guinea broke the deadlock in the eleventh minute when Bangoura's deep cross from the left found Sylla to volley past Eve, who perhaps could have done better to keep the effort out.

Bermuda were not behind for long as just four minutes later Zeiko Lewis’s corner from the left dropped to Leverock inside the area, who controlled well before firing through a crowd of players and into the net.

Bermuda should have taken the lead in the 25th minute but Kole Hall somehow failed to convert Djair Parfitt-Williams’ driven cross across the goalmouth, inadvertently diverting the ball away from goal when it looked easier to score.

With half-time approaching Leverock was given his marching orders, leaving Bermuda facing the daunting task of playing the second 45 minutes a man down.

It proved the turning point as Guinea regained the lead just three minutes after the restart. Diawara was unfortunate to see his close-range effort cannon off the inside of the post but the ball was worked back to Bangoura, who lashed his first-time effort past substitute goalkeeper Andrew Kempe.

Diawara added a third in the 52nd minute, volleying Kane's low cross from the right past Kempe, with the fourth added just past the hour mark when Keita tapped in a rebound after the Bermuda goalkeeper had initially saved at the feet of Mohamed Camara.

In the 70th minute, Kempe was punished for giving away an indirect free-kick after picking up Luke Robinson’s backpass when a smart routine saw the ball touched back for Kane to curl into the bottom right corner.

To their credit, Bermuda refused to give up and came agonisingly close to adding a second in the final moments but Kane Crichlow’s effort was cleared off the line.

SCORERS

Guinea: M Sylla 11, M Bangoura 48, K Diawara 52, J Keita 61, M Kane 70.

Bermuda: D Leverock 15.

TEAMS

Guinea (5-3-2): M Camara – M Sylla, I Conte, Y Balde, M Bangoura, K Diawara (sub: M Soumah, 56min) – M Kane, M Conte (sub: S Yansane, 82), C Conde (sub: J Keita, 64) – O Camara (sub: Moussa Camara, 64), T Barry (sub: Mohamad Camara, 64). Substitutes not used: Ousmane Camara, Boke Camara, O Drame, A Bangoura, M Keita. Booked: Conde, M Conte, I Conte

Bermuda (4-2-3-1): D Eve (sub: A Kempe, 46), L Simmons (sub: J Butterfield-Steede, 41), D Leverock, H Twite, L Robinson – R Lee, A Todd (sub; K Scott 77) – D Parfitt-Williams (sub: S Ming, 77), K Crichlow, Z Lewis (sub: J Bean, 88) – K Hall (sub: R Coddington, 77). Substitutes not used: D Bell, R Jones, D Swan-Desilva, N Tucker, K Martin, R Robinson. Booked: Hall. Sent off: Leverock.

Referee: S Aljurays (Oman)