CAN 2024: Ivory Coast defeated by Nigeria (0-1)
After a penalty from Nigerian captain William Troost-Ekong in the 55th minute, the Super Eagles won over the Elephants, now 3rd in Group A, after Equatorial Guinea’s (4-2) victory over Guinea-Bissau on Thursday 18 January.
Ivory Coast was beaten on Thursday 18 January by Nigeria (1-0) on a penalty from William Troost-Ekong, a result that places the host country of the African Cup of Nations (CAN), in third position in Group A. With this result, Nigeria is tied for 2nd place in the group with Equatorial Guinea (4 points) and ahead of Côte d’Ivoire which has three points.
The atmosphere at the Alassane-Ouattara stadium in Ebimpé, a suburb of Abidjan, was a notch above that of the opening match on Saturday, with nearly 50.000 fans pushing behind the Elephants, in vain. The Ivorians were showered by a 55th minute penalty to the Super Eagles, after a foul by Ousmane Diomandé on Naples striker Victor Osimhen, in the box. The Nigerian captain, William Troost-Ekong transformed him with a full-axis strike, to give the advantage to his team.
Before this goal, both teams had neutralized themselves during an initial period when Côte d’Ivoire had the ball and Nigeria was clumsy with no shot on target. In the 8th minute, the Nigerians could have opened the scoring, when the best African footballer in 2023, Victor Osimhen picked up the Ivorian defence before hitting above. Christian Kouamé, who started in place of Jonathan Bamba, answered him immediately, but ran into Nigeria’s goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali. In the 31st minute, Ivorian midfielder Seko Fofana fired a powerful far-away strike from Nwabali.
In a sharper second act, the Ivorians had few opportunities to return to the mark even if Seko Fofana could have found the fault in the 73rd minute on a shot from outside the surface, not framed. The nine minutes of additional time granted by Algerian referee Mustapha Ghorbal did not change anything: Côte d’Ivoire is the first host country to lose a match in the group stage since Equatorial Guinea in 2012.
