The opening game of Group B in the Africa Cup of Nations was a very anticipated encounter between two of the Africa Nations Cup giants - Ivory Coast and Nigeria. Along with the host nation, Ghana, these were the pre-tournament favourites.
Gone are the days when African players were almost unheard of. These days all the European leagues and many of the top European teams are being represented in the African Nations Cup 2008. Among the Premier League players representing the Ivory Coast Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou (Chelsea), Kolo Toure and Emmanualle Eboue (Arsenal), and Tottenham’s Didier Zakora. While for Nigeria Premier League players included Obifemi Martins (Newcastle), John Obi Mikele (Chelsea), Yakubu Ayegbeni and Joseph Yobo (Everton), John Utaka and Nwanko Kanu (Portsmouth).
Nigeria, known as The Super Eagles, had slightly more possession in the first half and Obifemi Martins made several piercing runs from the left hand side. On one occassion he was booked for diving in the penalty area when a replay clearly showed he was caught by the defender.
The Ivory Coast, nicknamed Elephants, looked well disciplined and solid in defence throughout the game and in the second half Salomon Kalou twisted and turned his way past three defenders from the edge of the penalty area before slotting the ball calmly past a fourth defender and ultimately the Nigerian goalie to score the only goal of the game.
The game was pretty open with plenty of fast, free-flowing powerful football. A very colourful, exciting game with the Nigerian band playing throughout the 90 minutes.
Just two weeks before the tournament began, the Ivory Coast lost their coach Uli Stielike as he learnt his son had fallen into a coma and resigned a few days later. The team will be managed by Olympic coach Gerard Gili, who assisted former coach Henri Michel at the 2006 Nations and World Cups.
This is the third game of the tournament after Ghana beat Guinea 1 - 0 yesterday, and Morroco beat Namibia 5 - 1 earlier today.
The fourth game is currently Mali 0 Benin 0.
1 comment so far
1 acer // Jul 2, 2008 at 1:45 am
The game was pretty open with plenty of fast, free-flowing powerful football. A very colourful, exciting game with the Nigerian band playing throughout the 90 minutes.