IF: Who Would Welcome The Time-Affected Eagles?

Ivory Coast produced a fairytale ending to the most remarkable run at the Africa Cup of Nations as Sebastian Haller’s winner completed a 2-1 comeback win over Nigeria in the final. The hosts lost two of their group-stage matches, sacked their manager and then pulled off a penalty-shootout victory and a 122nd-minute winner on their way to booking an improbable place in the final.

For the fifth time this century, the finalists of an Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) have emerged from the same group, although on this occasion neither of them actually topped Group A! Drawn as the ‘home team’ for this final but with the majority of the 60,000 spectators in Abidjan’s Alassane Ouattara Stadium against them, Nigeria have already demonstrated they know how to silence a hostile crowd when they defeated host nation Ivory Coast 1-0 at this very venue last month. That was to be the first of five consecutive games at this tournament in which they didn’t concede a single goal from open play, illustrating where their strengths lie in their pursuit of a fourth AFCON crown. It was a semi-final penalty shootout against South Africa that propelled them into their first AFCON final since winning the tournament in 2013, however later they could not avoid a repeat of the previous AFCON to take place in Ivory Coast, when they finished as runners-up. Even the most optimistic football fan from the Ivory Coast must have thought their AFCON dreams went up in smoke two weeks ago. The host nation scraped through a near-disastrous group stage campaign (W1, L2) in which they claimed the 16th and last place in the knockouts. But they rallied to knock out reigning champions Senegal in the last 16, before a quarter-final win over Mali booked a semi-final date with DR Congo, who they beat 1-0 to secure just their second regulation time win of the entire tournament and book their spot in their first AFCON final since their 2015 title. In doing so, the now three-time AFCON champions became the first host nation since Egypt in 2006 to reach the final match of the tournament. Egypt lifted the trophy in that edition after a penalty shootout win over Ivory Coast, whose playing squad featured current caretaker manager Emerse Faé. Perhaps spurred on by the heartbreak of that final loss, and the recent defeat to Nigeria, Faé has been careful to assert that it’s necessarily their ‘destiny’ to win a home AFCON with time. But as home nations have had a 4-2 record in AFCON finals ere the night, they held a significant advantage later in the day!