Half-time: Algeria 0-0 EQG Great chances for both sides, EQ nearly scored an absolute peach from 30 yard out.
70 mins: GOAL for Equatorial Guinea!!! Oh Jesus, Algeria are shitting the bed! Never expected that, they are a fine side. But EQG have played well in this tournament, most of their players play in second tier Spain.
35 games unbeaten run just ended. Who would have thought Equatorialguinea would be the team to beat Algeria first?
Equatorial Guinea beat Algeria 1-0, unreal!!! Oh my, Algeria looked awful at times. Steward's inquiry, please. Thursday will be a battle! Group standings after two games: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/africa-cup-of-nations/table Remaining games (UK times for kick-offs): Monday, 17 January 2022 16:00 Burkina Faso v Ethiopia 16:00 Cape Verde v Cameroon Tuesday, 18 January 2022 16:00 Malawi v Senegal 16:00 Zimbabwe v Guinea 19:00 Gabon v Morocco 19:00 Ghana v Comoros Wednesday, 19 January 2022 19:00 Egypt v Sudan 19:00 Guinea-Bissau v Nigeria Thursday, 20 January 2022 16:00 Côte d'Ivoire v Algeria 16:00 Sierra Leone v Equatorial Guinea 19:00 Gambia v Tunisia 19:00 Mali v Mauritania
I'm very pissed off about the performance of Côte d'Ivoire. They missed too many occasions and played with suffisance. It unpardonable in a great competition. But now Algeria is under pressure. Côte d'Ivoire will have to have a more solid team and be efficient.
I had a feeling that "undefeated streak" wasn't as impressive as it sounds. The only decent team they've really faced in a full strength competitive game since last afcon was burkino faso...who they couldn't beat at home or away
I had doubts on Algeria after they couldn´t beat Burkina Faso twice in WCQ. I had them not making the semi-finals of this AFCON but then they dispatched Ghana relatively easily in a friendly and I changed my mind... Everything can change fast. 10 days ago I was convinced that Senegal and Algeria were by some margin the best sides in Africa. Both have been very dissappointing. Algeria might leave the tournament without playing a knockout stage game...
wow I am in shock. This might sound crazy but it really seems like some witchcraft is going on at this tournament, because I am not believing what I have witnessed. I've heard of this kind of thing going on before in the African game, and I've really experienced almost supernatural like occurances. At first there were so many 1-0 games. Algeria scoreless after 2 matches, blowing so many chances, especially in their first. The Ivory Coast game today they blew tons of chances, its like the ball is not meant to go into the net, and the way that one ended. I think Algeria might be going home. CIV are gauranteed a 2nd round with 4 points even if they lose, but I have a feeling Algeria might not beat them, and if they dont they are out. Credit has to be given though to Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Things on the African scene can change so quickly Before the tournament Algeria was looking unbeatable and Nigeria was looking like crap. Now the roles have been reversed. But who knows, things can change again.
If they didn't let in that last minute howler, they would have already topped their group with a game to spare.
For me, if Algeria had lost to, say, Guinea instead of Eq. Guinea, it wouldn't be all that surprising. The former would be akin to Portugal losing to Serbia. But Algeria losing to Eq. Guinea is indeed a major upset. Somewhat akin to Portugal losing to, say, Azerbaijan. Initially, I should mention that I don't rate Algeria as highly as many do, despite giving them due credit for the unbeaten streak they boasted and fully acknowledging that they indeed were the most impressive side when they won AFCON 2019. But I have seen them enough times to know there are dents in their armor too. Except, not so many dents to expect them to do as poorly as they have done. I should hasten to add, incidentally, that my view before the tournament on the sides likely to win this AFCON hasn't changed. Except if I was writing today, I may have omitted Senegal from the list.
I dont know what to say about Algeria, but I thought they played well in their first match, bar the finishing. On another day that game ends 3-0. The EG match was definately worse, but I am convinced now that EG is actually a decent team. They beat Tunisia in the World cup and gave Ivory Coast a really tough game, now beat Algeria. Yes a bit of luck, but I dont think EG is as bad as many people think. Now it seems that no matter how good the North African teams are comming into a non North African nations cup, they always seem to struggle. The Egypt of the 2000's seems to be the only real exception, and I haven't been all that impressed by Morocco despite 2 wins. Tunisia bounced back but it could just be that Mauritania is really bad. I def dont see a North African team winning this tournament, and I remember stating that going by the "rule of thumb" the favorites never win AFCON and I predicted either Nigeria or CIV based on that superstition. I think Nigeria looks like a good bet, but its still too early and I feel that there will be maybe one or two more real surprise results like we saw yesterday.
This is definately true SOME of the time. Again I agree overall that the CAF teams need to be more clinical and should have done better, but I think you are overstating it a bit especially in your comparisons with Concacaf. First off it isn't really "concacaf" doing better than CAF. It's really just Mexico. As I've stated the US has a SLIGHTLY better WC record than Nigeria, but considering that the US has been on the world scene much longer, has hosted a world cup, has a much more stable and wealthy confederation and program, has a top 15 in the world domestic league, I dont think it is surprising, and frankly Nigeria has done well to be only slightly behind the US in terms of world cup record. Mexico has been to the quarter finals of a world cup 20 YEARS before a West African team even qualified for the world cup, they have a long standing football tradition and a top 10 in the world domestic football league. Again it shouldn't really be that surprising that Mexico is MORE CONSISTENT and not really necessarily better than all the African teams. Nigeria has played Mexico 3 times at full strength over the last 2 decades, and each game was a draw. You can say that some African teams had more "standout" players than Mexico, but Mexico has that domestic league that produces a certain level of talent that the African nations don't have. You are overstating Costa Rica overall world cup record to be honest who did very well in one World Cup (definately the best single achievement from CAF/concacaf considering their talent level) but they've been pretty mediocre in all other tournaments unless you go back to 1990. Ghana definately is more impressive with back to back knockout rounds in 2006 and 2010 qualifying from 2 straight Group of deaths, while Costa Rica went out with a whimper the next time around. And finally I still maintain that Concacaf big guns struggle just as much against their lesser opposition as CAF does. You asked how teams like Comoros, Sudan, Ethiopia are better than Bermuda and that is simple. All those teams have results against the African big boys. Comoros recently tied Egypt, Sudan has recently beat Ghana, and Ethiopia has recently beat Ivory Coast. Bermuda has nothing like that on their resume, let me know when they get those kind of results against the big teams in Concacaf. There are plenty of the bottom half teams at this tournament that are not worse than teams like El Salvador and even Honduras, so I think its fair to say that both CAF and Concacaf big guns do struggle against their smaller counterparts. Bermuda and Suriname are not equal to teams like Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, etc. You are seriously overrating those teams. Thats why to you you think the CAF teams are struggling. You cannot compare Bermuda to any of the teams at the AFCON. Suriname I agree has potential, but they haven't hit it yet.
Eq Guinea might be decent, and indeed some of their results suggest as much, but Algeria should do better even against somewhat decent sides. As it is, they are still searching for their first goal in this tournament. That said, and notwithstanding what I wrote about Eq Guinea (influenced by the kind of exaggeration and hype by the fellow doing the play-by-play for beinsport etc), I noticed that after M1 I saw the Algeria/CIV group to be actually "wide open", giving all the teams in the group a chance to qualify to the R16. Indeed, my predictions after MD1 for the R16 still look okay, since I wisely skipped over predicting the groups I felt would be too close to call.
Also the teams that took part in the Arab cup haven't really seemed to benefit from that tournament like I had predicted. In fact the only team (Morocco) that didn't have a single player at that tournament are the ones doing the best here.
there's been some ridiculously soft penalties awarded by VAR by the way. If that's all VAR brings to the AFCON then I don't want it. These ball to hand at close range, that doesn't even stop a scoring chance need to be cut out of the game.
Players adjusted their way of defending. I see almost all defenders defending holding their hands behind their backs lol.
I wanted to take a look at how my predictions for Group A went but I haven't figured out how I can quote myself correctly lol. I guess I will make a review of my group stage predictions when all group are in the books.
If Morocco beat Gabon they are the first team under the 16/24 team format to finish back to back AFCON group stages on 9 points.
Hmm don't think I'd compare EG, whonreached the quarterfinals and semifinals of the AFCON in the last 10 years to Azerbaijan, a team who have no hope of qualifying for a Euros. I think it's more like Italy losing to say a Hungary or Slovakia. EG also have a few naturalised players playing in Europe if I'm not mistaken. An upset but not exactly David v Goliath
Maybe not quite a Hungary(who have reached a high level over the last few years) But I get what you are saying. All these smaller teams are definately much better than people are giving them credit for. I mean look at the teams who could be considered amongst the worst teams at this tourney and their recent results (all competitive matches, nothing older than late 2020). E Guinea beat Algeria and Tunisia Sierra Leone tied Algeria, Ivory Coast, and tied Nigeria twice Ethiopia tied Burkina Faso and Ghana Sudan have twice tied Guinea and beaten Ghana Mauritania have tied both Tunisia and Morocco Comoros tied Egypt These teams aren't pushovers at all and all can get credible results and make most of their games even against the big teams tough.