Ivory Coast's unique African championship

Nearly eliminated from the group stage, fired the coach while the tournament was underway but then won the championship, Ivory Coast wrote a strange story in the history of the 2023 African Nations Championship.

Ivory Coast: From last ticket to championship candidate

The biggest surprises at AFCON 2023

The player "was sent off the field twice", even the assistant referee was surprised

On the evening of February 11, the Ivory Coast team won the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations by defeating Nigeria 2-1 in the final. Looking back on the past journey, I see that the championship of the Ivory Coast team was very strange.

The Ivory Coast team was crowned AFCON 2023 champion

Ivory Coast is the host of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, but at the end of the group stage they won 1, lost 2, ranked 3rd in Group A. They entered the 1/8 round as one of the 4 teams ranked 3rd with a record. the best. The above result caused the Ivory Coast Football Federation to fire coach Jean-Louis Gasset and appoint assistant Emerse Fae to take charge. Worth mentioning, Emerse Fae has never had experience leading the first team and has just turned 40 years old.

"Changing generals and changing fortunes", Ivory Coast made Senegal the former king in the 1/8 round, in turn won against Mali 2-1 in the quarterfinals, defeated DR Congo 1-0 in the semi-finals before coming back to win Nigeria 2- 1 in the final. This is the third African championship in Ivory Coast's history after 1992 and 2015.

Sebastien Haller, Ivory Coast's hero in this tournament, also wrote his own fairy tale, when just over 18 months ago, he discovered he had cancer. Haller's extremely sensitive footwork in the 81st minute helped Ivory Coast complete a comeback to win 2-1. Nigeria opened the scoring in the 38th minute, but Franck Kessie then equalized for the hosts in the 62nd minute. Nigeria was the team that beat Ivory Coast 1-0 in the group stage.

According to The Guardian, Ivory Coast is a strange case because no team has won a major tournament after receiving 2 losses. Worth mentioning, Ivory Coast lost heavily to Equatorial Guinea 0-4 in the group stage. “This was the most exciting victory amidst chaos, laughter and an unquenchable will. No one can win the tournament the way Ivory Coast did," commented The Guardian.