Fae is an Afcon miracle maker
FINAL: INTERIM IVORY COAST BOSS OVERSEES REVIVAL
Ivory Coast’s victory over the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) semifinals on Wednesday leaves them just 90 minutes away from completing arguably the most remarkable turnaround in major international tournament history.
Sebastien Haller’s goal was enough to give the host nation a 1-0 win over DR Congo at the Ebimpe Olympic Stadium and set up a final date at the same venue tomorrow against Nigeria.
Just like five years ago in Egypt – when Algeria beat Senegal 1-0 in the first round and did so again to win the title – the Afcon final will be contested between two teams who met in the group stage.
Ivory Coast lost 1-0 to the Nigerians in Abidjan on 18 January and followed that by suffering a harrowing 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea four days later.
It was their heaviest-ever home defeat and it made them the first Cup of Nations hosts to lose two group matches since the Ivorians themselves in 1984.
Coach Jean-Louis Gasset was sacked, and the team waited to find out if they would somehow stay in the competition thanks to other results.
In the end they did, scraping through as the last of the four best third-placed teams, saved because Ghana conceded twice in injury time to draw with Mozambique in their last group match.
Emerse Fae, the former Elephants midfielder who had never managed a team before, took over on an interim basis, albeit only after an audacious attempt to hire Ivory Coast’s 2015 Afcon-winning coach Herve
Renard on a short-term deal failed.
He has overseen an astonishing revival.
“After the humiliation against Equatorial Guinea, we looked ourselves in the mirror and said what needed to be said,” admitted midfielder Franck Kessie. “We saw we couldn’t do any worse.”
“We are not invincible but it is our mentality,” Simon Adingra, the vibrant Brighton and Hove Albion winger, told broadcaster Canal Plus Afrique.
“We were out of the tournament and then brought back in, so now we can’t commit any more errors. We are already dead, so we can’t die twice.”
From being on the verge of being just the second Afcon hosts to go out in the group stage in 30 years, they now hope to become the first host country to win the trophy since Egypt in 2006. –