The group stage of the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon yielded disappointments and surprises alike. Algeria, defending champion, said goodbye without winning and with a worrying level. Four-time champion Ghana succumbed to debutant Comoros. Other lower-ranked teams, such as Gambia, Malawi or Equatorial Guinea, are among the top 16 in the tournament.
The slow start to the African Cup of Nations is now a thing of the past. The tournament in Cameroon has raised the bar, perhaps not so much from the game, but from the number of goals scored and the emotions delivered.
The group stage ended with two big disappointments: the premature eliminations of Algeria -well below the level that led them to be champions of the CAN 2019 or of the last Arab Cup last December- and of Ghana, which sealed a pale campaign with an unprecedented loss against Comoros.
Precisely, the team from the island country is the protagonist of one of the most outstanding stories of the group stage. In their first participation, they got into the top 16 of the contest, an achievement also achieved by Gambia.
Algeria and Ghana lead the big disappointments, with several big ones in debt
For Algeria, this CAN 2021 was a ‘déjà vu’. In 1992 he said goodbye in the group stage, just two years after becoming African champion for the first time in its history.
Although in this 2021 edition, their favorite status was even greater, especially with the boost of having won the Arab Cup -without their European players-, played in Qatar between November and December 2021.
But little or nothing was seen of the dominating team of recent years. Instead, a predictable version, without explosion and with many defensive shortcomings, collided without mitigating with modest but orderly rivals, such as Sierra Leone (0-0) or Equatorial Guinea (0-1 and the end of a 35-game losing streak ). Ivory Coast, with a resounding 3-1, showed the exit door to Djamel Belmadi’s men, who will have to recover to return to Cameroon in March to seek passage to the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Around Ghana, expectations were not high, but even so, first-round elimination is a resounding blow for a four-time tournament champion team. More considering their unexpected 3-2 loss to Comoros in the last game. The earthquake was such that it ended the brief second cycle of Serbian Milovan Rajevac (coach of the ‘Black Stars’ in the historic fourth place in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa), under pressure from the country’s Ministry of Sports. In March he will define his ticket to Qatar against Nigeria with an interim coach.
The other favorites are still alive, but several of them have a debt in the game, as well as their figures. This is the case of Senegal, which has possibly the best squad in the competition but barely added 5 points and scored only one goal, a penalty, in the agonizing victory over Zimbabwe. It was enough for the team led by Sadio Mané to win Group B, but their performance was far from ideal.
A similar analysis fits the Egypt-Mohamed Salah binomial. Under the orders of Carlos Queiroz, who prioritizes the zero goal and positional correction, the Liverpool star looks uncomfortable and finds it difficult to get involved in the game. Still, he scored the winning goal against Guinea Bissau and arouses a furor among the fans every time he touches the ball. But something more will be necessary for the Pharaohs to achieve their eighth African crown.
After CAN 2021, in the near future for these two teams a decisive meeting is coming in March for the last qualifying round for Qatar 2022: between Mané and Salah, one of the two great current African icons will be left without a World Cup.
Also included in the debtor column are Tunisia -which only stood out with a 4-0 win against Mauritania, but fell to Mali, a rival they will face again for a place in the next World Cup, and Gambia- and Morocco which, despite at his 7 points, he did not convince from the performance. The ‘Lions of the Atlas’, likewise, look towards the World Cup playoffs, instance in which they will start as favorites against the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Gambia, Comoros, Malawi, Equatorial Guinea: the modest ones shake the forecasts
If the African Cup has always been characterized by delivering stories of ‘outsiders’ who burst in against the tide, this 2021 edition in Cameroon has multiplied those presences.
At the head of the surprises are Comoros and Gambia, two teams that qualified for the round of 16 in their first participation in a CAN.
The Comoros tour has taken the main lights. The team ranked 132nd went from not being able to participate in the CAN 2013 classification due to economic problems to building a process of almost 8 years under the orders of Amir Abdou. The coach, in charge since 2014, was able to convince players from the diaspora and descendants of Comorians to join the team. After two opening defeats, the 3-2 win over Ghana resulted in the first goal, first win and first qualification for the knockout stage at an African Cup.
On the Gambia side, their group stage campaign was even better, with wins over Mauritania and Tunisia and a draw against Mali. The cast of Tom Saintfiet – a Belgian strategist with vast experience in Africa – is also supported by players recruited from European football, such as Musa Barrow (Bologna, Italy) or Ablie Jallow (Seraing, Belgium), author of 2 of the 3 team goals in the initial phase.
But the list does not end there. Equatorial Guinea, the only Spanish-speaking African country, advanced to the round of 16 with two victories, including an outstanding 1-0 win over Algeria, which ended the ‘Desert Foxes’ undefeated streak of 35 games; Malawi, in their third appearance, made it through the group stage for the first time; and Cape Verde, who made it through the first round for the second time in their third appearance.
Eliminated, it is also worth highlighting the tasks of Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. The ‘Leone Stars’ started two draws against Algeria and Ivory Coast, had Mohamed Kamara as the best goalkeeper of the starting round and were one goal away from qualifying, but Kei Kamara missed the penalty that would have meant 1-1 against Guinea Equatorial on the last date. While the ‘Warriors’ were about to get a draw against Senegal (it was a defeat with a controversial penalty in stoppage time) and they beat Guinea well 2-1 in their farewell to the tournament.
Nigeria and Ivory Coast arrived in silence, but are emerging as candidates
But not all the favorites were lacking in brilliance and, in fact, some of them stood out above expectations. The most relevant case is that of Nigeria, the only team that completed the 9 possible points in the group stage.
The ‘Super Eagles’ came to the tournament with an interim coach, Augustine Eguavoen, who took over two weeks before the start of the tournament after Gernot Rohr was fired. Added to that were the losses of important players such as Victor Osimhen, Emmanuel Dennis and Odion Ighalo. However, they showed off some dynamic football to beat Egypt and dispatch Guinea Bissau and Sudan.
Another of the selected ones that has rounded off an outstanding first round is the Ivory Coast. Hit by the exit in the group stage of qualifying for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, Patrice Beaumelle’s ‘Elephants’ showed a better version in Cameroon, especially in the resounding victory over Algeria. A squad with brilliant names like Wilfried Zaha, Franck Kessié or Nicolas Pépé invites hope.
It is also worth highlighting Cameroon, who, far from suffering pressure, grew stronger in front of their fans and added 7 points out of a possible 9, with two victories achieved after overcoming the deficit against Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. In addition, the ‘Indomitable Lions’ had the best player in the first phase, Vincent Aboubakar, scorer with 5 goals.
And another that deserves a paragraph is Gabon. He arrived at the tournament involved in a controversy over the claim for unpaid prizes and with an outbreak of Covid-19 that affected his two figures, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mario Lemina (both under scrutiny for having participated in a party during their concentration in Dubai). Both players said goodbye to the tournament without being able to play after possible consequences were detected after recovering from the disease. However, led by Jim Allevinah and Aaron Boupendza, those led by Patrice Neveu surprised with a direct and fearless style of play, which almost allowed them to beat Morocco and stay at the top of Group C.
With an open forecast scenario, the round of 16 begins this Sunday. Burkina Faso-Gabon and Nigeria-Tunisia animate an interesting opening day. Then will come the crossings between Guinea-Gambia, Cameroon-Comoros (Monday), Senegal-Cape Verde, Morocco-Malawi (Tuesday), Ivory Coast-Egypt and Mali-Equatorial Guinea (Wednesday).
After this phase, the candidates for the title will begin to be profiled. We will have to wait to find out if the path to the trophy follows the logic or adds more surprises.
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