Sports
EQUATORIAL Guinea caused a major upset in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) soccer tournament when they humiliated hosts Cote d’ivoire 4-0 in the final Group A match on Monday.
Emilio Nsue’s brace in both halves of the match played at Ebimpe’s Alassane Ouattara Olympic Stadium silenced the mass of supporters of the host nation.
The brace extended his lead on the goalscoring chart to five. Other scorers included Pablo Ganet and Jannick Bulya.
As expected, the Elephants, with the backing of the crowd, got off to a better start.
However, a lack of accuracy in front of goal saw them miss a number of clear-cut goalscoring opportunities which they later regretted.
The in-form Nsue found the back of the net with a neat finish from close range in the 41st minute to send his side into the lead ahead of the recess.
Coming into the second stanza, the Elephants pressed on but were denied by Equatorial Guinea, with two of their goals also denied by VAR.
The Elephants’ momentum was then broken by a wonder strike in the 72nd minute when Pablo Ganet’s well-taken free kick found the top corner of the net to double the lead.
The lead was stretched further immediately after the restart when Nsue finished off a quick counterattack to make it 3-0.
The final nail in the coffin was hammered by Jannick Buyla who finished off a rebound to seal an emphatic win for his side.
Equatorial Guinea Coach, Obiang Bicogo, told reporters after the match that he had a strategy coming into the game which worked perfectly against the Ivorians.
”We knew that the opponent had a lot of pressure, we took that into account when putting our strategy in place.
”With our humility, we made the effort to reach as far as possible.
”We are working to reach the level of the big guys. What we want is to do our job, believe in ourselves and try to win every time,” he said.(NAN)
T.S
-January 23, 2024 @ 7:05 GMT|
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