It was another scintillating quarter final encounter between the desert foxes of Algeria and the Elephants of Ivory Coast, as both teams went against each other to determine who books a spot in the Semi final round. One doesn't get to watch this kind of interesting games everyday. For me, it was the best way to cool off my busy day, and I just wish it was a two-legged(Home and Away) encounter, so I could watch these duel again.
You may be wondering why Algerians are not leaving any stone unturned in celebrating their victory over the Elephants of Ivory Coast at the ongoing African Cup Of Nations, but trust me, if you had watched that game, you will appreciate the celebration better. From the stadium at Suez to all nooks and cranny of social media, Algerians held nothing back in expressing their joy of Semi final qualification since 2010.
The game witnessed too much physicality and the statistics reflects how the match all went. So far so good in AFCON 2019, the Algeria vs Ivory Coast quarter final clash has the highest number of yellow cards issued (7). It has also recorded the most fouls(58) committed so far in the tournament. In a match that recorded the most shots that have been fired in the tournament so far, you can only imagine the work rate of the goal keepers.
The match had ended 1-1 after extra time and Algeria were lucky to emerge triumphant in the penalty shootouts, thanks to the miss by the Ivorian Serey Die. The penalty shootouts ended 4-3 in favour of the desert Foxes who were a bit unlucky not to have secured a win at normal time play. Algerian would have put the match beyond the reach of Ivory Coast early into the second half, but a costly penalty miss by Baghdad Bounedja kept the scoreline at 1-0 for Algeria.
The Algerian side were for me the better team in the encounter, but their inability to finish their offensives against their opponents almost cost them a semi final ticket. This flaws of theirs could prove even more costly when they take on an experienced Nigeria side on Sunday to determine4 who goes to the final. The Super Eagles had defeated the Bafana Bafana 2-1 the previous day to qualify to the Semi final of the tournament, after Ekong scored a late winner to send them through.
Algeria had taken the lead at the 20th minute, thanks to the opener by Sofiane Feghouli which made the scoreline 1-0. The Ivorian goalkeeper Rais M'bolhi was also at his best to keep the scoreline within the reach of his side. With Baghdad missing an early second half penalty, Ivory Coast leveled the score through an awesome goal by Jonathan Kodjia. The equality brought so much tension and physicality into the game, as both teams dragged each other into the penalties, after extra time failed to give up a winner.
It wasn't the segment of football I enjoy watching, but I had to watch it anyway. I knew the luckiest team would still pull through, however, I was left to wonder who the scapegoat would be. With Wilfred Bony and Sorry Die missing their portions of the spot kick, Algeria went through with a 4-3 win. It's evident that the Elephants are yet to learn from their past flaws, and are still paying for it. They've lost 5 of their 7 penalty shootouts in African Nations Cup, and that's far from many peoples expectations. Algeria have shown they are a force to reckon with, as they maintain their six games unbeaten run in the African cup of nations.
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