The teams of Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria will meet in the decisive match of the African championship

In the final match of the African Cup, which will take place on Sunday, the Nigerian national team will meet its host, the Ivory Coast team. She made it to the finals in an amazing way: miraculously surviving the group stage after a humiliating defeat from rivals from Equatorial Guinea and even managing to fire the head coach after it.

The African Championship is always a fun event, full of different dramatic or simply touching stories. And the current one, which was accepted by Côte d’Ivoire, was no exception.

These stories, as usual, included the failure of the favorites, a tradition of the African Cup. This time there may be a little more of them than the historical tournament “norm” suggests. Already at the group stage, having found themselves in the lower places in their quartets, the national teams of Algeria and Tunisia disengaged, which can easily be imagined as causing problems not only for the regional giants. That is, you don’t even need to imagine – just remember how the Tunisians performed in December 2022 at the World Championships in Qatar. They didn’t make it to the play-offs, but in the group they tied with the Danes and even beat the French. It was ruined by a minimal, 0:1, defeat from the Australians.

Further more. In the 1/8 finals, the opening round of the cup stage, the Egyptians faced Mohamed Salah, the leader of Liverpool, who lost in a penalty shootout to the DR Congo team, and most importantly, the Moroccans. It was impossible for a person guided by ordinary football logic to accurately predict their early gathering. In the end, we are talking about a team that was thunderous in Qatar, reaching the semi-finals, and with which, over the past year, nothing seems to have happened that would make it weaker. But no, I couldn’t cope with the South Africans.

And yet, even against this background, the Ivorian case, which, however, has a slightly different coloring, stands out. Everything here is quite interesting. It is clear that this team would have been included in the contenders for awards in any case. The application includes half a dozen football players who have played or are playing for great clubs from leading European leagues, such as Franck Kessier, Sebastien Allaire, Seko Fofana, Serge Aurier. Solid background. And the status of the hostess of the tournament only increased the chances of success.

But instead, at some point, disaster loomed on the horizon. Or rather, not on the horizon, because the disaster was very close. The Ivory Coast team began the African Cup of Health with a victory over the representatives of Guinea-Bissau. But it was followed by a loss to the Nigerians – 0:1 – and some completely humiliating defeat – 0:4 – from the Equatorial Guinea team. No one has ever beaten the Ivorians so hard on their field.

So, immediately after this beating, the country’s football officials showed that, like any African officials, they are quick to take revenge by firing French coach Jean-Louis Gasse and appointing Emerson Fae instead. Surely they thought that his appointment was already for the future, since there was practically no chance of making it to the playoffs.

The Ivory Coast team finished the group stage in third place in its quartet. And the rules of the African Cup are the same as those of the European Championships: two teams from each of the six are guaranteed to qualify for the 1/8 finals, plus there are four more slots for those who finished immediately after them. To occupy one, good performance is required.

The Ivory Coast team had, of course, so-so. The Guineans, Namibians, and Mauritanians surpassed them in third place in the ranking. The Zambians could well have overtaken the team if they had taken at least a point in the match with the Moroccans in the final round. But the Moroccan team did not let the hosts down, beating their competitors 1:0.

And then there was a thorny play-off, looking back at which Emerson Fae pathetically, but, it seems, rightly and aptly said: “We died, but were resurrected.” The Ivory Coast team put the finishing touches on the formidable Senegalese in a penalty shootout, then the Malians in extra time, and in the semi-finals, thanks to Sebastien Allaire’s only goal, they dealt with the DR Congo team and will now again meet with the Nigerians, powerful by continental standards. In the semi-finals, they defeated the South Africans in a shootout with kicks from the penalty spot after a draw – 1:1 – following the results of regular time and overtime.

Alexey Dospehov