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By:
Associated Press
- 30 January 2024 22:20
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Ivory Coast have gone from despair to great joy at the Africa Cup of Nations, and have regained their confidence for success in this continental tournament.
The host nation were on the brink of elimination after a shock 4-0 defeat by Equatorial Guinea in their final group game. The crushing loss came after a 1-0 defeat to arch-rivals Niger and left the team dependent on the results of the other groups to somehow make it through to the knockout rounds.
Most did not believe it was possible. Disillusioned Ivory Coast fans vandalized tour buses outside the Alassane Ouattara stadium and the Ivory Coast Football Federation sacked French coach Jean-Louis Gasset "for poor results".
The federation promoted Gasset's assistant Emerse Fae as interim coach, although it seemed unlikely that the former Ivory Coast midfielder would be in charge of the team for any Africa Cup of Nations matches.
Morocco then beat Zambia 1-0 to help Ivory Coast advance to the knockout stage as one of the top four third-placed teams from six groups. In fact, Ivory Coast advanced as the last team in the knockout stage. After that, the federation tried to convince the French federation to loan the coach of the football team, Herve Renard, for the rest of the tournament. But the talks broke down.
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Fae, who must have been aware of the federation's desire to replace him, quietly prepared the squad for Monday's match with reigning champions Senegal - the only team to win all three group games and perhaps their most difficult opponent hardly possible for Ivory Coast in the round of 1.
"If I said there wasn't pressure, I'd be lying," Fae admitted Tuesday.
Despite being at a disadvantage from the fourth minute, the Fae-led side did not give up and managed to level the scores with Franck Kessiet's late penalty to send the match into extra time. Kessie also scored the winning penalty as Ivory Coast triumphed 5-4 on penalties over Senegal, prompting celebrations across the country.
"We wanted to show that what happened last week against Equatorial Guinea was an accident," Fae said. "I asked my players to give everything, not to give up and we succeeded."
Street parties broke out in Abidjan, the country's largest city, with drivers honking and people dancing and partying in the streets until the early hours of Tuesday.
But Fae called for calm, aware that Ivory Coast have not had any stability in this tournament.
"We won a game. We lost two out of four. So we are equal," said Fae. "We really came through the back door, but we still want to stay in the tournament. So we will work quietly if possible. We know that Morocco is the favorite or even Nigeria, but we will focus on the quarter-final match and see what happens next."
The victory over Senegal, one of the pre-tournament favourites, has restored the confidence of the fans who believe that the Ivory Coast can triumph in the Africa Cup of Nations. In fact this would be only the third title for the Ivory Coast after those in 1992 and 2015.
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"When you're playing at home and you've got the support of the crowd, it's perfect, it's great, it gives you more strength to have the 12th man with you," Fae said. "So we will give everything to continue sweating for the shirt, to fight together. In this way, we will be sure that we will have supporters behind us".
Ivory Coast will play on Saturday in Bouake in the quarter-finals of the African Cup that is being held in this country.
