The AFCON 2023 must have come and gone but it left with some memories for one to ponder upon for many days to come.
One of those memories or surprises is the poor performances of the top teams in the continent and surprisingly, some of them were being eliminated by underdogs.
Some of the big teams were actually the tournament favorites but they disappointed bookmakers with their lackluster performances.
Firstly, reigning champions, Cote d’Ivoire were very poor at the beginning of the tournament before they bounced back. They lost scandalously 0-4 to Equatorial Guinea in their last group match. It took the help of Morocco for them to remain in the tournament and eventually won the trophy at the expense of Nigeria.
Although 2022 champions, Senegal, won all their group stage matches defeating Gambia 3-0, Cameroon 3-1 and Guinea 2-0 but losing to a team that struggled to qualify with three points in the round of 16 was a shocking result to football followers.
African current highest ranked team and World Cup semi-finalist, Morocco is another disappointment at the AFCON. Although they won their first match by 3-0 against Tanzania, drew 1-1 with DR Congo and defeated Zambia 1-0 but being eliminated by a South African team that is mainly home-based players is another shocker.
Ghana, with its arrays of stars comprising the Ayew brothers, Kudus, just to mention a few, couldn’t cross past the group stage. They surprisingly lost their first match to Cape Verde by 2-1. The second game ended 2-2 against Egypt while their third game against Mozambique, which would have taken them to the next round ended 2-2. They went home after the group matches, they couldn’t even qualify as one of the four best losers.
Egypt on the other hand, who incidentally were in the same group with Ghana also struggled without their talisman, Mo Sallah, who got injured in their first match. They played a 2-2 draw against Mozambique, drew 2-2 against Ghana and drew again 2-2 against Cape Verde.
After wobbling and fumbling to get to the second round, they were sent packing by DR Congo in a penalty shoot-out that saw the match ended at 7-8, after regulation time which also ended by 1-1.
The 2022 host, Cameroon with their scintillating performance two years ago at their backyard, also disappointed many football lovers especially their fans back home which also made their Football Federation president, Samuel Eto’O Fils to resign.
They drew 1-1 with lowly-rated Guinea, lost 3-1 to Senegal and struggled to defeat Gambia by 3-2 in a very tough encounter that saw Gambia almost grabbing a equaliser in the last minute before the goal was ruled out for an offside courtesy of the help of Video Assistant Referee, VAR.
Lastly, Tunisia, another top ranked team in the continent also fell like a pack of cards losing 1-0 to Namibia in the first match. Many thought it was a fluke, then, they grabbed a 1-1 against Mali to prove their doubters wrong and in their last group match, they played a goalless draw and failed to qualify for the round of 16. In a group that has Mali, Namibia and South Africa, they got just two points, they couldn’t even qualify as one of the best losers.
However, the likes of Cape Verde, Angola, Namibia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, DR Congo, Mauritania and Burkina-Faso gave good account of themselves even though some of them didn’t go beyond the round of 16, qualifying in their groups ahead of top teams are enough for them to be happy with their performances.
The likes of Angola, DR Congo, South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire are the other teams that also deserve commendations, they gave the top teams a run for their money, getting to the quarter and semi final stages respectively with Cote d’Ivoire emerging as champion, Nigeria as first runners-up while South Africa came third after defeating DR Congo in the third place match.
Meanwhile, Ivory Coast became the first host nation to lose two group games at an AFCON since 1984 and also lifting the trophy.
The next AFCON will be hosted in Morocco in 2025, the question on the lips of everyone is, who will be the next champions, would it be the current champion, Cote d’Ivoire again or would Morocco follow the footsteps of Cote d’Ivoire, hosting to win? Only time will tell.
