The 2023 AFCON did not disappoint. Anyone who wasn’t paying attention, you really were missing out.
The amount of ridiculousness and chaos that comes out of this competition is truly incredible. But we’ve come to expect that over the years. The value for entertainment is always there.
This is the only competition where a team that loses 2 matches in the group stages and then fires their manager in the middle of the tournament can go on to win the whole thing.
Full of upsets, full of questionable moments, and full of quality.
All 8 quarterfinalists from last time were eliminated before this year’s final 8 was even solidified.
Not only that, but every African team that qualified for the 2022 World Cup was knocked out in the round of 16. The unpredictability here was insane.
There’s always a bit of a lul when it comes to promotion of AFCON outside of Africa, which is a massive shame. Jurgen Klopp’s infamous comments from 2021 have come back to haunt him several times over and have left a lasting effect.
I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt here and say that he didn’t intend for it to be interpreted that way. Having 2 of the best players in your team and on the planet leave for all of January isn’t ideal in the Premier League. Plus, I don’t even know if English is his 2nd or 3rd or whatever language, really.
Even still- a poor choice of words.
The Ivory Coast lifted the trophy on home soil when all was said and done. Congratulations to them, they really deserved it. The Didier Drogba cam was going crazy as soon as that equalizer hit.
But Nigeria made them work for it.
It was a wild ride. And I’m here to talk about it.
Tournament overview
AFCON started off with vibes and it ended with Vibes.
I’m gonna miss some of the big details, I’m pretty sure, so I’ll need all your help in the comments.
Before the tournament began, OPTA released their numbers for which nation was most likely to win AFCON this time around. At the very top, they had Senegal- which makes sense, they were the reigning champions, of course.
Sadio Mane at the tip of the spear, Ismaila Sarr and Kalidou Koulibally form just a select bunch of players that make up this powerhouse of a nation.
But they weren’t powerful enough to overcome the round of 16.
Egypt were truly terrible. They played horrifically against the Congo and I would say deserved to be knocked out.
It’s been a rough decade for the Egyptions. Record AFCON winners with 7 overall -2 more than 2nd placed Cameroon. and the only team to ever win 3 AFCONS in a row- 2006, 2008 and 2010. Yet, since 2010, they’ve failed to qualify 3 times and have been met with bitter disappointment ever since.
A real shame.
Cape Verde, on the other hand, were a real surprise package. And no, I’m not talking about all the down bad guys on twitter, talking about how the next AFCON needs to be held in Cape Verde.
Although, CAF, if you’re listening- why not?
Not only did they top a group with both Ghana and Egypt, but they did so in style and showed great value for their performances.
The weight of a nation fell on Bebe. And he delivered a beauty of free kick. But not much else
Cameroon won in 2017 but haven’t been able to get back to the finals since.
Andre Onana, who was the Cameroonian FA and Samuel Eto’s biggest enemy over the last year or so has had a renewed interest in the squad.
He infamously walked out on Cameroon after he had a disagreement with the Cameroon national team manager, Rigobert Song, during the 2022 World Cup over tactics.
He left the camp and announced his retirement from international football at the age of 26.
He came back a year later after reconciling with the manager. But the drama didn’t end there.
He was with Manchester United before the tournament and had to rush to make Cameroon’s opening game against Guinea. He did not make it in time.
And Cameroon did not make it out of the round of 16.
I’ll tell you who did, though.
South Africa had a glance at that 2017 result and liked what they saw.
Which is why they enlisting the coach of the their 2017 winning side, Hugo Broos. And my God did this man cook.
From only qualifying once in the past 3 tournaments to making it to the semifinals this time around is truly special.
Broos took over as the head coach in May of 2021, has managed 30 games and only lost 6 of them. The way he’s sured up the defence has been great to watch.
Aubrey Modiba, Mothobi Mvala and Khuliso Mudau were especially on their a-game here.
Percy is always expected to show up for SA. I think he was alright- he could’ve done more at times, for me. I can’t really complain.
Teboho Mokoena will be in Morroco’s nightmares for years to come. But he’s just chilling. Here’s proof.
As someone that witnessed Bafana Bafana disappoint time and time again over the years, this was an insane achievement.
I don’t know how Rowen Williams walks around with balls of steel like that. Pause.
During the penalty shootout vs Cape Verde this man stopped 4 penalties. We’re not gonna talk about how he saved four penalties, but still had to go between the sticks for a fifth.
That’s not important. Honestly, at this point, I believe this man can save the South African Economy. I know who I’m voting for.
Another thing about South Africa’s trip to the semi’s that nobody seems to be talking about is that they did this with a squad that mostly consisted of local players. This is a stat that’s gonna blow some people’s minds.
Bafana Bafana’s squad had 20 players that play in the PSL – the South African Premier Soccer League – and only 3 that play abroad. Get this. Every single one of the other teams that made the semi-finals only had 1 player in their 23 man squad that played in the local league. Believe it. It’s true. Been a crazy time for South African Sports lately and I’m all here for it.
- Banyana Banyana win the Womens AFCON in 2022.
- Both men’s and women’s field hockey teams win the Africa Cup of Nations in the same year. A record 8th and 7th time a piece. Light work.
- SA becomes the greatest Rugby nation to ever exist in 2023. Light work.
- A semi-final appearance in the Cricket World Cup.
- My guy Dricus doing his thing.
- Now this semi-final appearance that very easily could’ve been a final appearance. I’ll settle for 3rd place, I guess.
Mali were in fine form and were a lot of people’s dark horse throughout the tournament, as they put in some incredible performances. They were the better side against the Ivory Coast in the quarter final too.
An out of this world strike by Nene Dorgeles, was unfortunately cancelled out by 2 goals by the Ivorians very very late on. A 90th minute equaliser and a 122nd minute winner.
It’s nightmare fuel for the losing side.
Winner overview
Onto the finalists. Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.
On paper, it makes sense that the final would be competed between these two great nations, but that ignores the story behind it all. The best player from Africa often come from these two countries, 5 title wins between them before the tournament and both of them in the final guaranteed 6 when it was over.
But I’d like to remind everyone that this tournament is vibes only.
Not only did Nigeria finished 2nd in their group to Equatorial Guinea, but Ivory Coast were in the exact same group as them and finished 3rd.
The storylines that this tournament had to offer were unbelievable.
Nigeria came into AFCON having topped their qualification group by 2 points. A near perfect record sullied by a single loss to the team in 2nd place, Guinea-Bassau.
They may not have had a perfect record- in fact, nobody did. But they did score the most goals out of any team in the entire qualification stage… by a lot.
22 goals in the qualifiers over 6 games sounds like something that comes straight out of FIFA.
Although it’s probably worth mentioning that this tally is largely inflated by only 2 matches. Both of them against São Tomé and Príncipe. Nigeria scored 16 goals against these guys in 2 matches. How is that even possible?
Koln hasn’t even scored that many goals after 21 games in the Bundesliga. I’m sorry you’re catching strays here, guys. They had to go somewhere.
Victor Osimhen was, of course, the main culprit here. Scoring 10 in the qualifiers.
This coincided with the greatest season of his career, thus far. The 2023 African footballer of the year, Serie A footballer of the year, Serie A striker of the year and Serie A winner was gonna be a real problem in this tournament.
But it wasn’t just him. He actually only scored 1 goal in the entire final tournament and never scored a single time in the knockouts. Ademola Lookman and William Troost-Ekong carried the bulk of the scoring, with 3 apiece. And the rest of the entire squad played support to great effect.
The group stages were good enough. Finishing 2nd to Equatorial Gueinea on goal difference ensured that they were on their way to the knockouts. On that note, they weren’t a particularly high scoring team. Only goal per game in all 3 matches.
They weren’t super convincing in the knockout either. They took Cameroon and Angola out in the next two rounds, but they were never in the form that qualified them for AFCON.
And then they came up against South Africa.
It really could’ve gone either way with both teams having great chances.
After 67 minutes, Osimhen went down in the penalty area, which led to them taking the lead.
This next bit shows you what kind of tournament AFCON is- Nigeria scored a second in the 84th minute and it looked like it was game over. Only for the ref to bring the ball back for a foul on the other end of the pitch in the build up to that goal and call a penalty. Teboho Mokoena then equalises for SA in 90th minute and then Mudau skies a chance to win the game in the 96th minute of normal time.
Nigeria win on penalties.
I’m not mad.
The Ivory Coast had a completely different route to the final. They were the hosts, sure. But, belief was incredibly low for these guys during the actual tournament.
Qualification went fine, no issues there, no glaring events to point towards. The opening match was fine too. 2-0 against Guinea Bassau.
This is when everything fall apart.
Beaten by Nigeria by 1-0, and then by Equatorial Guinea by 4 goals to nil. Peak embarrassment. Shout out to Emilio Nsue for winning the golden boot with 5 goals. 2 against Cote d’voire too.
I can only imagine what was going on behind closed doors after this result. What I do know is that the Ivorian FA had had enough. Jean-Louis Gasset was fired after losing back-to-back matches in the group stages, leaving them in 3rd place.
Despite this, by the grace of God- somehow Ivory Coast qualified for the knockouts as the 4th best 3rd placed team.
Bruh, look at this table. History better remember how close this team was to collapse.
Assistant coach Emerse Faé took over as the head coach for the remainder of the tournament, in what was expected to be a short stint.
However, surprise surprise. The results greatly improved after that, but they had to work hard for that too.
Senegal, the favourites, scored first, but the Ivorians came back. Mali, many neutrals team of choice, scored first, but the Ivorians came back. This was one of the games of the tournament, by the way. Simon Adingra and Seko Fofana were just unreal in this one.
And in the semis DRC also did not have enough.
The last time Côte d’Ivoire made a final was 2015. The last time Côte d’Ivoire won AFCON was 2015.
The last time Nigeria made a final was 2013. The last time Nigeria won AFCON was 2013.
Everything was setup perfectly.
Nigeria were still the favourites, though. A lot of people expected Ivory Coast to trip up at some point in the knockouts. A fair assessment, given their early form.
But they took the game to Nigeria and were definitely the team that was pushing most early on. Nigeria definitely came to play knockout football as they never took too many risks. This payed off when the Super Eagles scored the first goal of the match off a corner.
Drogba was not happy and I know every cameraman was instructed to let us know that at all times.
But like I said, the Elephants were dominating all game, so it was no surprise when Franck Kessie brought it back level. Sebastien Haller tried the extraordinary to give his team the edge, before actually doing it in great fashion.
This goal isn’t given enough credit, I think. The technique and reaction time here is incredible. What a finish.
The Didier Drogba cam was going crazy, the Emerse Faé cam was going crazy. Ivory Coast became the only nation after Egypt to win an AFCON on home soil. Congratulations to them and what a tournament it was.
A really special mention has to go to Sebastian Haller. This man was diagnosed with testicular cancer in July of 2022. He went through two surgeries and four cycles of chemotherapy and was thankfully back up and running in early 2023.
Fast forward to 2024 and this man is an African Champion. These are the stories that this is all about.
That’s the 2023 AFCON in a nutshell. A tournament where reputation counts for nothing, where everyone’s out to have a good time and where Never change AFCON, never change.