{"id":3976,"date":"2024-01-23T15:35:50","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T15:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=3976"},"modified":"2024-03-24T16:59:40","modified_gmt":"2024-03-24T16:59:40","slug":"order-restored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2024\/01\/23\/order-restored\/","title":{"rendered":"Order Restored?<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (January 18th<\/sup> 2024)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outclassed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Thunder clapped loudly as Equatorial Guinea trounced Guniea-Bissau\u2019s Djurtus (the Wild Dogs) 4-2 to claim pole position in Group A. The result put the National Thunder top, pending the result of the Elephants\u2019 encounter with the Super Eagles. Equatorial Guinea\u2019s Emilio Nsue L\u00f3pez opened the scoring in the first half, although the Djurtus\u2019 skipper, Sori Man\u00e9 should have prevented Nsue receiving Pablo Ganet\u2019s through ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 8 minutes of the first period remaining, Franculino Gluda Dj\u00fa\u2019s persistence reaped the dividend of an own goal by Esteban Orosco Fern\u00e1ndez to send both teams in all square at the interval. It was Guinea-Bissau\u2019s first goal since their last two AFCON appearances. It almost got better for the Djurtus as they were initially awarded a penalty \u2013 Saul Coco had been yellow carded after referee, Samuel Uwikunda ruled that he clipped Franculino \u2013 the decision to award a penalty was overturned by VAR and National Thunder took full advantage in the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A long clearance by goalkeeper Jes\u00fas Owono Ngua Akeng found Josete Miranda Boacha, who shot was clinical and restored Equatorial Guinea\u2019s advantage. Nsue netted twice more to claim the first AFCON hat-trick since 2008 \u2013 Soufiane Alloudi\u2019s within the first half hour of Morocco\u2019s group stage 5-1 thrashing of Namibia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guniea-Bissau\u2019s keeper Ouparine Djoco made a hash of dealing with Basilio Ndong\u2019s cross, gifting a second goal to Nsue, and he completed his hat-trick by rounding Djoco after collecting Jos\u00e9 Machin\u2019s through ball and scoring from a tight angle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owono parried Jefferson Encada\u2019s shot \u2013 an impressive save as it had been deflected after a cross by D\u00e1lcio (Euciod\u00e1lcio Gomes) had been neatly turned in by Z\u00e9 Turbo (Jos\u00e9 Correia).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guinea-Bissau have lost both matches and require a minor miracle to progress, but National Thunder has impressed and Nigeria will under-estimate them at their own risk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ground Out<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jos\u00e9 Paseiro\u2019s Super Eagles draw against Equatorial Guinea seemed like a defeat to their supporters, but Nigeria came good against the hosts to leapfrog the hosts by grinding out a result. It lacked the flair associated with Nigerian football, but this was all about the three points. William Troost Ekong scored from the penalty spot after 55 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

African Player of the Year, Victor Osimhen, had been brought down by Ousmane Diamand\u00e9 to concede the spot kick. Nigeria defended their lead obdurately preventing the Elephants from creating a meaningful chance. The Super Eagles face the Djurtus (The Wild Dogs) of Guinea-Bissau in the final group stage match. Nigeria has all but guaranteed a place in the last 16, while the country that one of Africa\u2019s greatest sons, Am\u00edlcar Cabral, built require his tactical genius to deliver a cricket score they need to stand a chance \u2013 albeit a slim one \u2013 to progress further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unhelpful Points Shared<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While both Egypt and Ghana avoided defeat, both countries really needed wins after bad results in the opening matchday of Group B. Ghana fell to a surprise defeat to Cape Verde, and Mozambique held Egypt until Mohamed Salah\u2019s penalty in added time rescued a point for the Pharaohs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ghana had the best of the first half as Egypt\u2019s talisman \u2013 the highest still active scorer in Africa\u2019s international football \u2013 Mohamed Salah was forced off through injury. His AFCON may already be over, although the extent of his injury will have to be assessed. The news got worse when West Ham United\u2019s Mohamed Kudus \u2013 recovering from injury himself gave the Black Stars a lead they took into the interval with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 20 minutes of normal time remaining a crazy three minutes, which averaged a goal a minute took place \u2013 the Pharaohs equalised through Omar Marmoush, punishing I\u00f1aki Williams\u2019 bad error, only for Kudus to restore Ghana\u2019s lead a minute later, and once again Egypt found an equaliser after 73 minutes through Mostafa Mohamed, who benefited from a delightful cut-back by Tr\u00e9z\u00e9guet (Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim Hassan).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ghana had a late opportunity to claim all three points, but Idrissu Babu steered his header wide of an inviting goal \u2013 honours even, but neither side would be content, as Cape Verde remained top of the group, despite only having played one match. They play Mozambique tomorrow with the chance to not only qualify for the last 16, but also guarantee finishing top of the group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (January 18th 2024) Outclassed The National Thunder clapped loudly as Equatorial Guinea trounced Guniea-Bissau\u2019s Djurtus (the Wild Dogs) 4-2 to [\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":[88,658,653,124,665,588,657,82,587,669,655,659,660,591,292,656,664,661,662,666,668],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976"}],"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=3976"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3983,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976\/revisions\/3983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}