It
started with the confusion of the Elephants sacking their coach Jean Louis Gasset,
after losing two matches whilst on the verge of exiting at the group stages from
a competition they were hosting. Their
0-4 loss to Equatorial Guinea was damning with their victors considered a far
lesser football force and their most prominent players wallowing at the bottom
of the lower leagues in Europe, compared to the Ivoirians who had players
rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s best! The situation looked crazy,
with the hosts on the brink of being eliminated, spectators dried up at the
venues, leaving the stadium for birds, visiting fans, AFCON officials, and cameramen.
The twists and turns of the
competition saw the hosts narrowly qualify for the second round and the local
spectators returned to the stadium and the tension of the knockout stages began. Most of the matches were predictable, but in the matches at Abidjan
(Egypt vs Republic of Congo), (Nigeria vs Cameroon), Yamoussoukro (Senegal vs Cote d’Ivoire), and San Pedro (Morocco
vs South Africa), everyone expected fireworks and indeed, the drama these
matches was much. The match between hosts Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal rose to its
crescendo and against bookmakers' predictions, the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire
did the unexpected by beating the defending champions. It was an unexpected
result; the Taranga Lions had not lost within the African continent for over
two years and losing to Cote D’Ivoire, who had crawled to the second round as
one of the best losers, looked unfathomable. Alas, it was about football, the
game of drama! South Africa beat Morocco, Egypt lost to the Democratic Republic
of Congo and Nigeria beat Cameroon.
The quarter finals had giant killers Cape Verde who had beaten Mauritania in the second round playing against South Africa in the quarter finals. It was an exhilarating match, with both sides looking equally matched and it dragged into penalties, where the South African goalkeeper, Ronwen Williams, made an everlasting statement in AFCON folklore by saving four penalties, to take his team to the semi-finals. The Elephants continued with their heroics and cut down the Mali national team in the last minute and last kick of the extra time and in another dramatic fashion. They had started to believe in themselves. The local coach Emerse Fae, had tweaked the team to play to their full strength but their initial stumbles, still made them less considered by other teams.
With their underwhelming performance at the 33rd
AFCON Competition in Cameroon and losing the FIFA World Cup in a despicable
manner, Nigeria’s Super Eagles, stumbled to a draw in their first match against
Equatorial Guinea and beat eventual winners, Cote D’Ivoire in the second match.
They came with a large collection of brilliant players, including Victor
Osimhen, the African Footballer of the Year but their style was unclear. Like Cote
D’Ivoire, Nigeria’s confidence as they progressed in the competition. Nigeria
overcame the onslaught of South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in the semi-finals, but
in the finals, against the Elephants, despite taking the lead they could not
continue to soak the pressure with the Ivoirians boosted by the home crowd. It was
a sad ending for the Super Eagles of Nigeria, but for the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire,
it was a dream come true.
