Cote D’Ivoire Road to The 2023 AFCON Finals

Just Like Nigeria, The Africa Cup of Nations host The Elephants of Cote D’Ivoire began their Group A campaign with a two-nil win against Guinea-Bissau with goals from Seko Fofana and Jean-Philippe Krasso in both halves.

They went on to play The Super Eagles of Nigeria in their second match and lost by a lone goal.

Their loss to Nigeria put pressure on the Ivorians Knowing that anything other than a win against Equatorial Guinea in the last group-stage, would give them no chance to qualify automatically for the round of 16. 

Eventually, The Thunder of Equatorial Guinea thrashed the Ivorians Four nil which meant they had to rely on other results elsewhere. Luckily a draw for Ghana against Mozambique meant the Ivorian would sneak through as the 4th on the best loser table with 3 points and qualify for the round of 16.

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In the round of 16, they came up against the defending champions The Terenga Lions of Senegal, where they conceded a Third-minute goal courtesy of Habib Diallo. They stayed in the game until 85 minutes as Nicolas Pepe won a penalty which was converted by Frank Kessie. The match went into extra and then a penalty shootout, which was where The Elephants prevailed 4-5 with Frank Kessie scoring the decisive Penalty to set up a meeting with Mali in the Quarter-Finals.

The Elephants book Thier place in the Semi Courtesy a 2-1 win over The Eagles of Mali after 120 minutes of football with Oumar Diakite scoring the Decisive goal with the last kick of extra time to send the Crowd into frenzy. Nene Dorgeles had given Mali the Lead only to be pecked back at the stroke of full-time by Simon Adingra

They Defeated the Leopards of DR Congo One via a looping volley in the 65th minute by Sebastian Haller to set up a repeat of the second game of the group stage against Nigeria in the final.

By Arinzechi Chukwunonso