Regragui was too stubborn sticking to the same 4141 he used in the WC where we were in the challenger's position. He was also too stubborn with the men to use : Ennesyri is useless when you are the one having the possession, I thought El Kaabi proved he deserves to start after a decent play against Zambia and was suprised to see Ennesyri start again. Mazraoui never did a good game in the LB position and even though he's back from injury he was prefered to Atiatallah who did well in the last game. Amallah doesn't deserve to start he brings nothing the transmission Hakimi missed the last PK he shot, why let him shoot again ?
Wow. An afcon quarterfinals without Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana, Who was it who said "Afcon is tougher than the world cup" Well Morocco did better at the past WC, than their last TEN Afcons. I said it before Morocco is very poor at finishing chances. They need ten very good chances to score once, and it came to haunt them. I actually now think the odds of a first time winner have shot WAY up, even though I'm inclined to believe we will have a CIV v Nigeria rematch.
Anyways anybody who said African football has not improved clearly doesn't know what they are talking about.
It's worth noting about South Africa. 7 players from their starting lineup belong to the same club Mamelodi Sundowns, who were semi finalists at the most recent CAF Champions league. It's literally almost an entire club team !! Similar to the Egyptian team that won 3 straight afcons and AL Ahly. South Africa is a very weird team that plays very well against Africa's top dogs, yet are very mediocre when it comes to playing the weaker sides. They've now beaten Morocco TWICE. An away friendly draw against CIV a few months ago. They've beaten Ghana in 2022 WCQ They beat Egypt in the knockouts of 2019 afcon, when Egypt was the host. They beat Senegal in the 2018 WCQ They beat Nigeria in front of their fans 2-0 in 2019 afcon qualifying. I am not happy they are in our 2026 WCQ group.
For the quarter finals All 8 quarter finalists are different from the 8 in 2021 All top 5 FIFA ranked teams out All 5 teams who made Qatar out Last 3 afcon champions out
Nigeria 1 Angola 0 Another pragmatic win. We are keeping a very compatible shape. Nigeria has not really before played like this.
Its funny. Nigeria Went in to the tournament in bad form and started with a draw against Eq. Guinea. But somehow they managed to find the form and now looks like the favorite of the tournament
The draw against E Guinea was actually the match we created the most chances. We should have won that game by 2 or 3 goals. Since then we've played more compact and conservative. Winning matches by playing mistake free football. Not the most exciting, but professionally getting the job done.
Such a shame with Mali and Cap Verde. They have maybe ben the two Best teams at the tournament. And now there isnt a possibility for a debutant to win the tournament. Mali was much better than Ivory Coast. They were unlucky
A weird match CIV were very poor, perhaps even worse than the game they lost 4-0. But Mali failed to take advantage of being a man up for more than half the match. Then CIV looked better in extra time when they made some subs.
I'm inclined to believe that as well, but afcons have a way of disposing of the bigger teams like no other international tournament frankly. I hear Argentina is playing both those teams in March.
Yeah I know, really funny how the chinese organization could have possibly aced the two afcon finalists. Nice games.
My take is that it's likely going to be a Nigeria-Ivory Coast final but I give DR Congo a somewhat decent chance to be party poopers. Nigeria will IMO make the final for sre. The other semi-final is tougher to call.
Nigeria vs CIV final. The match I wanted. After CIV qualified for the knockout rounds by a hair, this was the final I predicted. I knew they could beat Senegal, and once they got past them only they could stop themselves. From the outset I predicted CIV to win.
Prediction South Africa 0-1 DR Congo DR Congo will claim bronze for the third time in their history after 1998 and 2015.
Final CIV 2 Nigeria 1 Like I predicted CIV wins the tournament, although nobody could have predicted the manner which they won almost Eliminated from the first round. What a Rollercoaster of emotions for CIV. Today Nigeria did not deserve to win. We were far too conservative, as we have been all tournament. CIV played their game and it paid off, even after going down a goal against the run of play, they came back. Congrats to them. Worthy African champs.