Among other recent Africa Cup of Nations football news, Ivory Coast beat Equatorial Guinea by a narrow margin yesterday. Max-Alain Gradel’s early goal was enough to secure the 1-0 win for Ivory Coast over Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday. Still, we’d say the minnows were not total pushovers in the Group E encounter for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Patrice Beaumelle’s victorious side, with a curious nickname (the Elephants), have now gone to the very top of Group E. After all, defending champions Algeria only managed to draw 0-0 with Sierra Leone on Tuesday.
Africa Cup of Nations Football News – Ivory Coast Beat Equatorial Guinea
In the match itself, Ex-Bournemouth and current Leeds forward Gradel struck home a powerful effort to put Ivory Coast ahead.
Gradel was captaining the powerful Ivorian team that was missing Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha, who was on the bench.
And it was Gradel who scored the solitary, deciding goal from the edge of the penalty area in the sixth minute. And thus did Ivory Coast make a rapid start to the clash at the Japoma Stadium.
But while Ibrahim Sangare had two chances to double the lead before halftime, Equatorial Guinea showed they were no less. One of Africa’s smallest countries, Equatorial Guinea proved that they could play more than equally for the Ivorian’s level.
The minnows had several good chances themselves, after all, as they showed little fear of their heavyweight opponents. Indeed, their captain Emilio Nsue was at the finishing of the best of these attempts, only failing to convert them.
