{"id":3954,"date":"2024-01-21T15:12:46","date_gmt":"2024-01-21T15:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=3954"},"modified":"2024-01-21T15:29:44","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T15:29:44","slug":"minnows-no-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2024\/01\/21\/minnows-no-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnows No More<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (January 14th<\/sup> 2024)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thunder<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second day of la C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s 34th<\/sup> edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) was a day of shocks, or more accurately proof that most cannot be labelled minnows any more. Equatorial Guinea held Nigeria\u2019s Super Eagles to a 1-1 draw, a last gasp Mohamed Salah penalty enabled Egypt to claim a point in the 2-2 draw, just avoiding a humiliating defeat to Mozambique and Ghana fell to a surprise 1-2 defeat to Cape Verde<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equatoria; Guinea\u2019s best ever run in AFCON came in 2015 \u2013 a tournament they had no right to be present at due to being disqualified during qualification. Morocco\u2019s decision to withdraw from hosting earned National Thunder a reprieve. They won the right to host and reached the semi-final. Incredibly, they avoided a deserved ban for shameful scenes while Ghana was beating them in the semi-final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Elephants, however, have pleasant memories of Equatorial Guinea as they beat Ghana on penalties to claim their second title \u2013 they won their first against Ghana on penalties too in 1992. But while National Thunder has a controversial past, they are here on merit and in form too \u2013 they were unbeaten in their last three matches before facing Nigeria in tonight\u2019s match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the quality of their opponents was not the highest quality, it still meant they should not be underestimated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa\u2019s Player of the Year Victor Osimhen had several chances, but only netted once \u2013 a close range header assisted by Ademola Lookman to bring Nigeria level, two minutes after Ivan Salvador had swept Jos\u00e9 Machin\u2019s assist in to give National Thunder a shock lead. Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea had to settle for a point, which left Guinea-Bissau rooted to the bottom of Group A, while the hosts, la C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire top the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pharaohs Scrape By<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mostafa Mohamed gave Egypt the lead after just two minutes from Salah\u2019s assist, but three second half minutes saw the match turned on its head as Mozambique\u2019s Witiness Chimoio Jo\u00e3o Quembo, known as Witi, drew the Mambas level with a header from Domingos Macandza\u2019s cross after 55 minutes. A few minutes later a famous upset was on the cards as Guima (Ricardo Martins Guimar\u00e3es) supplied Clesio Bauque to shoot past Mohamed El-Shenawy to give Mozambique the lead. They held on until the final whistle beckoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In added time Macandza\u2019s foul on Mostafa Mohamed gave Egypt\u2019s skipper, Salah the opportunity to spare Egypt\u2019s blushes \u2013 he did so. It had been a close shave for the 33rd<\/sup> edition\u2019s beaten finalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the draws against more fancied opponents may have been unexpected, the four times winners of AFCON, Ghana, was humbled by Cape Verde. The winning goal by Dutch-born Garry Rodriges was simplicity itself, a tap-in from an assist provided by Gilson Tavares, but it sent shockwaves through Group B and AFCON itself. His shot after 17 minutes had been parried by Ghana\u2019s keeper Richard Ofori, only for Jarmiro Monteiro to snaffle the rebound to give the Blue Sharks the lead. Jordan Ayew\u2019s corner provided the opportunity for Alexander Djiku to head in the equaliser, but Chris Hughton would see his team tumble to the first shock of this edition of AFCON.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (January 14th 2024) Thunder The second day of la C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[594,88,602,590,597,596,588,599,82,438,593,587,592,600,121,595,591,258,589,292,601,550,382,598],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3954"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3954"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3959,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3954\/revisions\/3959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}