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The African Cup of Nations, AFCON 2022 otherwise known as Cameroun 2021 will ever remain green in the minds of spectators as the tournament continue to experience strange results and performances.
Before the commencement of the AFCON, bookmakers have predicted the countries and players that would perform excellently but they are being disappointed by their predictions because many of those teams have failed to live up to expectations.
Of course if the teams or countries are not doing well, it means the players who are highly-rated in their various clubs and teams by pundits are responsible for their countries’ low performance.
Anyway, it is not as if the players in question are not good enough or the highly-rated teams are equally not strong enough but because many countries especially the lowly-rated ones prepared extra hard to get the kind of results they are getting at the ongoing AFCON.
It was shocking to see Equatorial Guinea, 156th ranked team in the world defeating 30th rated and AFCON defending champions, Algeria by 1-0. Presently, Algeria is winless at the AFCON after they drew with Sierra Leone 0.0 in their first match.
Even though they won their first match against Equatorial Guinea by 1-0 Cote d’Ivoire, with his array of stars from clubs like AC Milan to Manchester United, Ajax Amsterdam, Arsenal, just to mention a few, they could only manage a 2-2 draw against Sierra Leone in their second match which sees AC Milan midfielder, Kessie losing a penalty. Despite the fact that Sebastian Haller of Ajax and Pepe of Arsenal scoring, Sierra Leone duo of Musa Kamara and Alhaji make sure that the Ivorians pay for all their misses. Goal keeper Sagari did not help matter as he fumbled with a simple catch to give Alhaji the equalizing goal.
Although, Mali won their first match against Tunisia in a controversial circumstance by 1-0, they struggled against Gambia in a match that ended 1-1. The presence of Liverpool’s Sadio Mane could not help Malians as the match ended in a stalemate with lowly rated Gambia.
Meanwhile, Egypt and Tunisia returned to winning ways. While the Egyptians won their match against Guinea Bissau, courtesy of their talisman, Mo Salah by 1-0, Tunisia who lost their first match controversially, walloped their opponent, Mauritania by 4-0.
Of all the rated teams by bookmakers, only Nigeria and the host, Cameroun seem to be the only teams that are doing well with six points in their kitty.
Incidentally, the most rated teams in Africa – Senegal 21st, Tunisia 28th, Algeria 30th, Morocco 32nd are still struggling to get their feet together and that does not mean, they cannot spring a surprise in the knock stage.
In the past, we have seen teams which managed to qualify or did not qualify but were called up to represent the absentees, only for them to go ahead and lift the trophy. Not forgetting in a hurry, Denmark. They did not qualify for the 1992 championship but went ahead to represent Yugoslavia who was disqualified and lifted the trophy. Brazil went to the world cup as best losers only for them to lift the trophy. Nigeria went to the 2013 AFCON, written off after they struggled to get to the next round and because they were to face a high flying Cote d’Ivoire with hot properties like Didier Drogba, Kolo and Yaya Toure in their folds, but they proved bookmakers wrong and did not only defeat the Ivorians but went ahead to lift the trophy. So anything can still happen and the big names can still rise again.
Results so far
Cameroun 2 Burkina Faso 1
Ethiopia 0 Cape Verde 1
Senegal 1 Zimbabwe 0
Guinea 1 Malawi 0
Morocco 1 Ghana 0
Comoros 0 Gabon 1
Algeria 0 Sierra Leone 0
Nigeria 1 Egypt 0
Sudan 0 Guinea Bissau 0
Tunisia 0 Mali 1
Mauritania 0 Gambia 1
Equatorial Guinea 0 Cote d’Ivoire 1
2nd round of matches
Cameroun 4 Ethiopia 1
Cape Verde 0 Burkina Faso 1
Senegal 0 Guinea 0
Malawi 2 Zimbabwe 1
Morocco 2 Comoros 0
Gabon 1 Ghana 1
Nigeria 3 Sudan 1
Guinea Bissau 0 Egypt 1
Gambia 1 Mali 1
Algeria 0 Equatorial Guinea 1
Cote d’Ivoire 2 Sierra Leone 2
Tunisia 4 Mauritania 0
