African football is celebrating another of the continent’s two-year football bonanza with the 34th edition already serving dance and spice. After a show of culture when the teams arrived in Ivory Coast, there has been pure entertainment as we head towards the end of Match Day 1. Underdogs have been disruptive, causing chaos all over, as favorites stumbled in their opening games. However, Senegal, the defending champions, with their array of star players, didn’t fumble even for a minute as they started their quest for another title.
The controversy with Andre Onana and Cameroon aside, the entertainment at the premier competition on African soil has not disappointed so far though a number of predictions on Sportytrader have served a few surprises. The three-week soccer bonanza is only getting started and you can catch today’s popular football match tips provided by Sporty as action continues.
Biggest shock
The biggest shock at the competition has to be Cape Verde’s 2-1 win over Ghana in Group B. While Ghana have been struggling in the competition, it wasn’t expected the joint second most successful African nation would struggle against Cape Verde. The Black Stars had gone into the competition without a few of their star players but they had been tipped to rise past the Cape Verde challenge. It didn’t play to book as the Black Stars went to the break trailing, and neither was Alexander Djiku’s equalizer enough to earn them a point as a last-minute Garry Rodrigues goal grabbed the points for Cape Verde. This is not to mention Ghana was on the socials voted the best-dressed team when arriving in Ivory Coast. Nigeria also came dressed elegantly in African traditional wear but were barely elegant on the field of play on Match Day 1. An unpredictable Equatorial Guinea pulled a first one of the three-time African champions and Victor Osimhen had to come to their rescue with the equalizer that saw the game end in a scrappy 1-1 draw.
Tough times
Another pre-tournament favorite, Egypt also had tough times out there, despite sending to the competition a star-studded team led by Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah along with a number of Premier League players. They did start strongly against Mozambique but two quickfire second-half goals reminded the Pharaohs their years of dominating African football were behind them. It took the intervention of Peter Kamaku, manning the VAR for the game to call back action and award Egypt a penalty in the seventh minute of time added on for Salah to grab the equalizer.
From what we have learned after Match Day 1 action, it is very clear that the most dramatic pool will be Group B where the underdogs have shown they are here not just for the numbers. Cape Verde leads this group and can secure their place in the next round with a win over Mozambique while there are sparks expected when Ghana and Egypt, teams with 11 AFCON titles between them meet on Match Day 2. On Match Day 2, we will also be on the lookout for how the Onana-Cameroon controversy pans out after the Manchester United keeper was omitted from the Match Day 1 squad on account of late arrival to camp.
