…Guinea to meet winner of Egypt versus DR Congo on Friday 2nd February in the QF.
Tears flowed freely at the Alasane Ouattara Stadium on Sunday night when the team that has scored the highest goals so far in the African Cup of Nations tournament, National Thunders of Equatorial Guinea failed to strike against the Sylli Nationals of Guinea losing 0-1 at a painful added time 0f 90+8 minute.
Two woes befell the Thunder agents with Federico Bikoro who plays in Tunisia bagging a red card in the 55th minute and current highest goal scorer with 5 goals missing a penalty kick advantage in the 66th minute when his shot hit the left upright post and bounced out when the Guinean Keeper dived to the right.
The god of soccer refused to let thunder strike the Sylli boys who played out their heart in the game.
Diakite got a ball on the right flank and gave a diagonal pass into the box which Mohammed Bayo who plays in France skillfully headed home in the 90+8th minute causing the stadium to erupt in a loud roar after the plot of the Equatorial Guinea boys to drag the game into extra time failed.
Cover photo is Mohammed Bayo after scoring the vital goal.
Guinea will stay back at the Outtara stadium on Friday 2nd February at 9pm to meet the winner of the Egypt versus DR Congo coming up at 9pm. That will be after the Nigeria versus Angola quarterfinal at 6pm.
This is the first ever AFCON match between both countries. Equatorial Guinea known as National Thunder surprisingly headed Group A beating Nigeria, Guinea Bissau and hosts Ivory Coast in that order on the table. She played 1-1 draw with Nigeria; slashed Guinea Bissau 4-2 for dinner and fired hosts Ivory Coast 4-0 to pull the country into street protests. She chalked 7 points, scored 9 goals which is the highest team score so far and conceded 3 goals.
Guinea was only a lucky loser from Group C after playing 1-1 with Cameroon; beat Scorpions of Gambia by a lone goal and the Teranga Lions of Senegal consumed the team 2-0. They had 4 points with Cameroon to place 3rd as they could only score 2 goals and conceded 3 goals.
Equatorial Guinea is an underdog team that has reached knockout stages in their last four appearances 2012, 2015, 2021 and now.
Guinea lost their last six AFCON games at Knockout stages failing to score in each of their last four as in 0-3 to Algeria in 2019 and shocking 0-1 to Gambia in the last competition of 2021.
The Sylli National or Elephants ranked 80 in the world is making her 14th appearance at the AFCON but has only one podium finish in Ethiopia 76 when she played 1-1 draw with Morocco and the Gold was awarded the North Africans.
Equatorial Guinea is ranked 88 and appearing for the 4th time as she co-hosted with Gabon in 2015 with a no show performance but hosted in 2015 and ended up with the 4th place in Malabo after losing via penalty kicks 2-4 and the real match goalless to Democratic Republic of Congo.
Emilio Nsue aged 34 is the oldest player to score 5 goals in a single tournament with Kalusha Bwalya of Zambia in 1996 at 32.
Egypt will parade her stars against DR Congo in yet another Round of 16 games at San Pedro later tonight at 9pm.
Tomorrow Monday, Cape Verde will meet Mauritania in a Round of 16 matches at Houphouet Boigny Stadium at 6pm and the star match between wounded hosts Elephants of Ivory Coast and Teranga Lions of Senegal at Yamoussoukro at 9pm.
The last set of Round of 16 matches is on Tuesday when Mali and neighbors Burkina Faso will slug it out at 6pm at Coulibaly Stadium and Morocco will lock horns with South Africa San Pedro Stadium at 9pm.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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