As the group stages of Afcon have come to a close and we look ahead to the knockout stages, it is time to look at what has been an exciting tournament so far with some incredible games and a good handful of cup upsets from Cape Verde's 2-1 win against Ghana in the opening matchday to Equatorial Guinea's 4-0 thrashing of hosts Ivory Coast in matchday 3 this years edition of the tournament has certainly not disappointed and have many great games coming up in the knockout stages.
Shock Upsets
This year's first set of group games mostly played out as expected. Group B, consisting of two favourites, Ghana and Egypt, showed the sudden unpredictability of tournament football as Cape Verde was set to take on Ghana, a team that, whilst having some of its starts players missing, was still expected to do well and was obvious favourites going into a game against one of the smallest nations of the tournament and whilst it looked as if they would scrape a draw against Cape Verde a glaringly wrong defensive mistake set the ball up perfectly for Garry Rodrigues to slot the ball into the net sending players, coaches and fans into hysteria and with Egypt drawing with Mozambique this put the Blue Sharks in prime position to reach the knockout stages which they would do with a game to spare winning their second game against Mozambique.
However, favourites Ghana would struggle to gain any momentum after their defeat in the first game, going on to draw their two remaining games and were unfortunately knocked out due to a familiar foe due to a late equaliser between Eqypt and Cape Verde, sending the Ghanaians hope and sneaking Egypt into the knockout stages.
Equatorial Guinea is another small nation that has sent shockwaves through the tournament, drawing their first game with titans of the group Nigeria and quickly bouncing back from this, putting four goals past hosts Ivory Coast, knocking them out of the tournament and ensuring their qualification to the next round and whilst their passage to the knockout stages was already set they finished off their group in style with a 4-2 win against Guinea-Bissau taking ensuring their place at the top of the group over Nigeria on goal difference.
Finally, another team that caused an upset and snuck into the knockout stages is Mauritania, who finished with 4 points and finished the group in style with a 1-0 win in a crucial game against Algeria that both teams were desperate to win; however, neither side it would be a Mohammed Dellah Yally goal that would send the Al-Murabitun ensuring that they go through as a best thrid placed team.
Three Knockout Stage Games To Look Out For
Nigeria vs Cameroon
This will certainly be a clash of the heavyweights and one of the biggest matches of the knockout stages, with both countries finishing 2nd in their respective groups; however, Nigeria will have to be considered as their favourites due to their defending ability, only conceding 1 goal across the group and are more solid at the back and with the attacking abilities of Victor Osihmen, Samuel Chuckweze and Ademola Lookman Cameroon will most likely struggle having conceded six goals in comparison in the group stage, hwoever with Andre Onana dropped from the starting lineup in their last group game a change in keeper could be on the cards with David Epassy and could be the change needed to boost confidence within the squad if they are going to have any chance getting a result against Nigeria.
Mali vs Burkina Faso
Mali and Burkina Faso will know each other well, having played 21 games against each other, with Mali having the advantage, having won 12 of these fixtures against Burkina Faso, with the last result being a 1-0 win in Mali's favour in the group stages of the previous tournament. However, Burkina Faso will certainly have as good a chance to reach the next round going off their strong performances in the group stage, including a 2-2 draw against a much tougher opponent in Algeria that ultimately sent them crashing out of the tournament, and this matchup between two sides that know each other very well is certainly going to be one of the closest games of the first round of the knockout stages.
Cape Verde vs Mauritana
This game between two "underdogs" of the competition is certainly going to create fireworks, with both teams being responsible for two of the cup upsets at the tournament so far, with wins against Ghana and Algeria, respectively; both countries are competing in their third ever tournament with Cape Verde having reached the knockout stages regularly in their short time, whilst this will be Mauritania's best result so far and they will be wanting to continue their historic run, whilst Cape Verde will be looking to break their first round knockout curse.
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