{"id":780682,"date":"2024-01-22T20:38:46","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T20:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/?p=780682"},"modified":"2024-01-22T20:38:46","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T20:38:46","slug":"afcon-2023-ivory-coasts-round-of-16-chances-after-the-drubbing-by-equatorial-guinea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/afcon-2023\/afcon-2023-ivory-coasts-round-of-16-chances-after-the-drubbing-by-equatorial-guinea","title":{"rendered":"AFCON 2023: Ivory Coast\u2019s round of 16 chances after the drubbing by Equatorial Guinea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Ivory Coast has just been literally massacred by Equatorial Guinea in the third group stage match of the AFCON 2023. In pursuit of victory to qualify directly for the round of 16, the Ivorians have complicated their situation but still retain a slim chance of securing a spot. Here are the possible scenarios for the Elephants to continue in their AFCON.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A real thunderbolt has just sounded in Ivory Coast, where the 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations is taking place. While everything had started well for the Ivorians with a fine opening victory against Guinea-Bissau on January 13, the Elephants made life difficult for themselves by losing in the second round against the Super Eagles of Nigeria. Under pressure, the host country had the obligation to get a result to qualify straightforwardly for the round of 16 of the AFCON 2023. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse against Equatorial Guinea this Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ivory Coast&#8217;s cold shower<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At the Alassane Ouattara Olympic Stadium against a surprising team from Nzalang Nacional, almost certain to qualify with 4 points in two days, the Elephants are going to be disappointed. Despite a clear dominance in the game, Ivory Coast&#8217;s defensive vulnerability and lack of efficiency in attack will work against Jean-Louis Gasset&#8217;s team.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/afcon-2023\/thunderbolt-ivory-coast-humiliated-almost-eliminated-from-its-afcon-2023\"> In the end, a resounding score of 4-0 <\/a>will mark this encounter in favor of the Equato-Guineans, who consolidate their first place in Group A with 7 points ahead of Nigeria, also qualified with 7 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Didier Drogba looking sad after Ivory Coast lost 4-0 to Equatorial Guinea \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\uddf6<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AFCON2023?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#AFCON2023<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Jjs7BTT19U\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/Jjs7BTT19U<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Pulse Sports Nigeria (@PulseSportsNG) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PulseSportsNG\/status\/1749509370100982054?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 22, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>With 3 points, Ivory Coast no longer controls its destiny. Even though the score seems heavy and definitively condemns the Elephants, it&#8217;s not completely over. Yes! The country of Didier Drogba, completely dismayed in the stands watching his team&#8217;s ugly performance this Monday, still has a tiny chance to qualify for the round of 16 as the 4th best third-placed team in this group stage of the AFCON 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Scenarios to see Ivory Coast through<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1011\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/01\/GEeCS_fXIAAC44r-1011x1024.jpg\" alt=\"AFCON 2023: Ivory Coast's round of 16 chances after the drubbing by Equatorial Guinea\" class=\"wp-image-780683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/01\/GEeCS_fXIAAC44r-1011x1024.jpg 1011w, https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/01\/GEeCS_fXIAAC44r-296x300.jpg 296w, https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/01\/GEeCS_fXIAAC44r-768x778.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/01\/GEeCS_fXIAAC44r.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1011px) 100vw, 1011px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For this scenario to unfold, Ivory Coast will need to pray for results in other groups to turn in its favor. Indeed, among the teams currently placed third, Ivory Coast remains at the top awaiting the matches of Namibia, Algeria, Zambia, Ghana, and Cameroon. So, if Ghana&#8217;s Black Stars draw against Mozambique, or if Cameroon does not defeat Gambia, and finally, if Morocco beats Zambia, the Elephants will secure a ticket to the round of 16 in the AFCON 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are unprecedented acrobatics that the Ivorians could have avoided by securing at least a draw this Monday against Nzalang Nacional. It remains to be seen whether teams like Ghana and the Indomitable Lions will once again miss out on their final group stage match in the 2023 AFCON. &#8220;When you wait for the results of others, it&#8217;s not a good sign!&#8221; says Jean-Louis Gasset, Ivory Coast&#8217;s coach, after the humiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Equatorial Guinea without mercy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Undefeated in all competitions since June 2022, Equatorial Guinea is on an incredible streak that goes unnoticed. Ruthless against top teams in competitions like the AFCON, Nzalang has notched another significant victory against Ivory Coast, the host nation of the 2023 AFCON. Before ruthlessly beating the host country this day, Juan Micha&#8217;s team had already eliminated Algeria in the group stage of the 2021 AFCON and knocked out Mali in the 2021 AFCON round of 16 on penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In any case, Jean-Louis Gasset is likely not to last long as the head of the Ivory Coast national team, given the lackluster performance of his team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ivory Coast has just been literally massacred by Equatorial Guinea in the third group stage match of the AFCON 2023. In pursuit of victory to qualify directly for the round of 16, the Ivorians have complicated their situation but still retain a slim chance of securing a spot. Here are the possible scenarios for the Elephants to continue in their AFCON.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":780689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[142,222],"class_list":["post-780682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afcon-2023","tag-afcon-2023","tag-ivory-coast"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/01\/template-28-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfmZoa-3h5E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":780690,"href":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780682\/revisions\/780690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afriquesports.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}