A graveyard for the powerhouses
AFCON: THE MOST SUCCESSFUL TEAMS ALL SENT PACKING
From Ivory Coast’s remarkable resurrection to heavyweight exits and underdog successes, there may never have been a more unpredictable major international football tournament than the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
The last-16 concluded on Tuesday night with the continent’s top-ranked team, 2022 World Cup semifinalists Morocco, being dumped out by South Africa after Achraf Hakimi missed a crucial late penalty.
Tournament hosts Ivory Coast returned from the dead, narrowly escaping a humiliating elimination in the group stage, but this Afcon has already proven to be a graveyard for many of the traditional powerhouses.
“It is not the end of the world,” insisted defeated Morocco coach Walid Regragui, whose country will host the next Cup of Nations.
“We are not the only ones. Lots of the favourites have been eliminated. We will come back stronger.”
The three most successful teams in the history of the competition are out – Egypt, Cameroon and Ghana have 16 titles between them but the first two were sent packing in the last-16 after the Black Stars limped out in the group stage.
All five of Africa’s representatives at the 2022 World Cup have already gone home.
Senegal’s exit on penalties at the hands of Ivory Coast continues a trend which has seen no reigning champions win a knockout tie at the Cup of Nations since Egypt in 2010.
Indeed, the last three champions have all been eliminated, with Algeria exiting in the group stage for the second Afcon in a row following their triumph in 2019.
Mohamed Salah, Riyad Mahrez, Sadio Mane and Hakimi, four of the very biggest stars of African football, will watch the rest of the tournament on television.
Most remarkably, none of the quarterfinalists at the last edition, two years ago in Cameroon, have reached the last-eight.
That might suggest that the decision to expand the competition to 24 teams – a change brought in from 2019 – has helped make smaller nations more competitive and increased African football depth. –