It may have been a dream for Cape Verde to continue their mysterious runs against African football super powers, it was more than a nightmare for Ghana’s Black Stars as they were rudely shocked in Sunday’s starry night at Abidjan.

A tournament composing of the big names in African football has suddenly turned to Greek puzzle to the giants. While the 1-1 draw of the Nigeria Super Eagles with Equatorial Guinea was initially seen as the routine inconsistency of the Nigerian side, the laborious fashion in which the most successful AFCON sides, Egypt scrapped a draw against one of the most lowly rated African sides, Mozambique possibly gave an indication of what could be in the offing in the coming games.
The form books are being torn into shreds. Adios, predictability, bye bye to form books. Welcome to the new football order!

Of the four big names – Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Egypt and Ghana – all of them multiple past winners – only hosts, Cote d’Ivoire managed to avert an upset. This lends credence to the saying that there are no truly minnows in the game.
Ghana who were upstaged by Cape Verde will have to find new strategies as they clash with equally embarrassed Mohamed Salah – inspired Egypt when both meet in a potentially explosive encounter on Thursday.

The same applies to Nigeria who have everything to play for and to play against when they face table toppers, Cote d’Ivoire on Thursday. A loss by Nigeria sees Cote d’Ivoire sailing into the Round of 16. A draw see both hanging on till last match day of the group.
A win will be a pain-reliever for the Super Eagles who are yet to win a competitive encounter in three consecutive matches. Besides, it could be an harbinger of good fortunes. Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations on three instances they avoided defeat to Cote d’Ivoire.

An angry supporter attempted to strike Ghana coach Chris Hughton after their upset loss at the Africa Cup of Nations finals on Sunday and was taken away by police, team officials confirmed on Monday.

Ghana were beaten by a stoppage time goal by the Cape Verde Islands, the smallest of the 24 teams at the tournament in the Ivory Coast in one of several shock results on Sunday.

Hughton was accosted at the team hotel as Ghana returned from the match but the angry fan was intercepted by security officials.

Hughton was also subjected to a volley of a verbal abuse, officials told Reuters.

It was a second successive defeat by an underrated opponent after Ghana lost in November in the World Cup qualifiers to the Comoros Islands.

“We are incredibly, hugely disappointed with the result. We came into the game with a game plan,” Hughton told a press conference.

“We changed the way of playing, the system a bit so that we could start on the front foot.

“We thought the team that were put out was certainly a more offensive team. This was our intention.

“I think it rocked us the (first) goal that we conceded but I thought we got back into the game.”

Ghana were behind after 17 minutes in a match in which they were highly fancied and fielded a team full of players based at European clubs.

They equalised in the second half but were beaten by a stoppage time strike from Garry Rodrigues.

“At that stage (when Ghana equalised) it looked like we could go on and win it. We are hugely, hugely disappointed with our result,” Hughton said.

“And I know, and this group of players also know, how the Ghanaian people see this game, see this tournament and our expectations going into this one.”

Former Ireland international Hughton, whose father hailed from Ghana, has been coach of the team since March, having helped them at the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar as a technical advisor.

His record is four wins in 11 games.

Lamine Camara scored twice as Senegal kicked off their Africa Cup of Nations title defence with a 3-0 victory over 10-man Gambia in Yamoussoukro on Monday.

Senegal moved top of the early Group C table ahead of Cameroon’s game against Guinea later Monday.

Aliou Cisse showed enough quality in the Ivorian heat to suggest they could become the first team to win back-to-back AFCON titles since Egypt reeled off three in a row in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

Senegal’s XI featured just five of the starting team which beat Egypt on penalties in the final two years ago and it was youngster Camara who stole the show.

Gambia already face an uphill task to reach the knockout stage two years after a shock run to the quarter-finals on debut.

The holders wasted little time in piling the pressure on their West African neighbours and took the lead in the fourth minute.

Sadio Mane was left in plenty of space at the back post and his lay-off was swept home left-footed by the unmarked Pape Gueye from inside the area.

Gambia endured a troubled build-up to the tournament, boycotting a training session over an unpaid qualification bonus before their flight to the Ivory Coast was forced to turn around just nine minutes after take-off due to technical problems.

But they grew into the game after the early setback, going close to an equaliser when Musa Barrow curled a free-kick into the side-netting.

Gambia were dealt a blow shortly before half-time though when Cardiff City midfielder Ebou Adams was dismissed for a studs-up challenge.

The underdogs continued to threaten after the restart however, as Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy was forced to dive to his right to palm away Barrow’s long-range drive, with Ali Sowe slicing the rebound wide.

Senegal effectively killed off the game just moments later, though, as a slick passing move ended with 20-year-old Camara collecting Ismailia Sarr’s pass and drilling a low shot into the far corner.

The Lions of Teranga rounded off the scoring with an early contender for goal of the tournament in the 86th minute.

Clever trickery from Iliman Ndiaye took him away from two defenders and his pass was expertly bent into the top corner from the edge of the ‘D’ by Metz midfielder Camara.

Mohamed Badamosi came close to grabbing an injury-time consolation for the Gambians when he headed wide, but they were ultimately outclassed and will now turn their attention to their second game against Guinea on Friday.

Senegal will likely face a tougher assignment when they face five-time winners Cameroon.

Guinea joined a growing list of surprise sides at the Africa Cup of Nations by drawing 1-1 against five-time champions Cameroon in Group C on Monday despite playing the second half with 10 men.

Mohamed Bayo gave Guinea the lead before captain Francois Kamano was sent off just before half-time. Frank Magri equalised early in the second half, but a winning goal eluded Cameroon.

The brave Guinean showing on day three followed a string of unexpected results on Sunday with Cape Verde defeating Ghana, Mozambique holding Egypt and Equatorial Guinea drawing with Nigeria.

Earlier on Monday, Lamine Camara scored twice as title-holders Senegal outplayed Gambia 3-0 with the losers also having a player sent off late in the first half.

Cameroon did not include Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana in the matchday 23 after he arrived in the Ivorian capital just a few hours before the kick-off.

Onana delayed his arrival so that he could play for United in a 2-2 Premier League draw against Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Coach Rigobert Song chose Fabrice Ondoa as his starting goalkeeper with two other shot-stoppers, Devis Epassy and Simon Ngapandouetnbu, on the bench.

Cameroon, seeking a sixth title and second in four editions, were also missing star forward and leading 2022 Cup of Nations scorer Vincent Aboubakar, who was ruled out by a thigh injury.

Guinea suffered a huge pre-match blow when Serhou Guirassy, scorer of 17 goals for Stuttgart in the Bundesliga this season, was ruled out by a knee injury.

In the absence of Guirassy, Bayo was the attacking spearhead and he gave the Syli National (national elephants) a shock lead on 10 minutes.

His first goal attempt was parried by Ondoa, but Cameroon failed to clear the ball and when it came back to Bayo, he slammed it into the net.

Subsequently, Cameroon won plenty of possession but were unable to seriously trouble Guinea goalkeeper Ibrahima Kone.

In a Guinea counterattack, audacious Sekou Sylla came close to scoring with a long-range shot that had Ondoa frantically backtracking before it landed on the roof of the net.

Guinea suffered a huge blow in the first half of added time when Kamano was sent off after the Egyptian referee changed his initial yellow card to a red for a foul on Magri.

The match official altered his decision after going to the touchline VAR monitor and seeing Kamano stamp from behind on the heel of his opponent.

Cameroon applied pressure from the start of the second half and Magri levelled on 51 minutes with a far-post header across Kone after a pin-point cross by Georges-Kevin Nkoudou.

Kone rescued Guinea as the end of regular time approached, first parrying, then grasping the ball after a close-range shot from Karl Toko Ekambi.

There were water breaks in both halves to assist the players, who had to contend with 36 Celsius (97 Fahrenheit) heat when the match kicked off in the central city.

In the second series of group matches on Friday, Cameroon tackle Senegal and Guinea face Gambia in a Yamoussoukro double-header.

Angolan striker, Cristovao Paciencia rescued a vital point for his side after converting from the spot to hold Algeria to a 1-1 stalemate at Bouake’s Stade De La Paix in their TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Group C opener against the former champions on Monday evening.

Angolan striker, Cristovao Paciencia rescued a vital point for his side after converting from the spot to hold Algeria to a 1-1 stalemate at Bouake’s Stade De La Paix in their TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Group C opener against the former champions on Monday evening.

The 2019 champions came into the tie as favourites on paper and unsurprisingly pinned their opponents into their own half from the opening whistle.

Fares Chaibi was the first to ask questions of Adilson Cipriano in as early as the 6th minute after doing well to connect with a Youcef Belaili cross for his volleyed effort to go narrowly wide.

Belaili, who was a constant threat to the Angolan defense almost opened the scoring charts in the eighth minute after doing well to cut in from the left to unleash a powerful strike that was fisted away by Cipriano.

The Desert Foxes were eventually rewarded for their relentless attacks after a lobbed ball from the back went over Kialonda Gaspar for 2019 title hero, Baghdad Bounedjah to comfortably slot it into the bottom left corner.

Interestingly Bounedjah scored Algeria’s opening goal in their first match of the 2019 edition against Kenya, where they went on to win the title Egypt.

Coming back from the recess, Angola’s game plan was to get balls into the danger area – a tactic that paid dividends in the 68th minute when substitute, Cristovao Paciencia converted from the spot kick after he was fouled in the box by Nabil Bentaleb.

The evenly contested encounter concluded with both sides sharing the spoils in front of a highly vocal Stade De La Paix crowd.

Next for Algeria will be a clash against Burkina Faso on Saturday at 14h00, while Angola face Mauritania in the 20h00 Kick Off.