Ivory Coast fell this Thursday, at home, against Nigeria (0-1) for the 2nd day of the African Cup of Nations. Troost-Ekong scored the only goal of the match (55th). Thanks to this success, the Nigerians take 2nd place in the group, just behind Equatorial Guinea – on goal difference – who beat Guinea-Bissau a little earlier (4-2).
A lively match that didn’t take 10 minutes to get going. From the first actions, the two teams who had to win to continue dreaming of the second round were offensive. Osimhen looked for space behind the defense but was well held by the latter. Serge Aurier, who regained the captain’s armband, showed the remains of his burst of speed to follow the Naples scorer. In attack, the Elephants failed to prove themselves really dangerous. Even with several incursions into the Super Eagles’ area, they too often lacked realism in the final gesture. Seko Fofana then tried something else by trying his luck from distance but the Nigerian goalkeeper, Nwabali pushed back without problem. A lively but aimless first half.
In the second half, the Super Eagles and the Elephants observed each other before going on the offensive. At the end of this calm phase, the Nigerians struck first. On a ball in the penalty area, Osimhen was touched by the Ivorian defender who tried to clear the ball. After reviewing the situation with VAR, the referee finally awarded the penalty. The captain, Ekong was responsible for transforming it into force. Behind, the Ivorians tried as best they could to come back, but their attacks led to nothing. Despite offensive changes from Jean-Louis Gasset, the incoming players achieved nothing and never really worried the Nigerian defense. The Elephants finally lost after a disappointing second half.
