Back from the dead: Ivory Coast on verge of remarkable AFCON success
Sebastien Haller's goal was enough to give the host nation a 1-0 win over DR Congo at the Ebimpe Olympic Stadium and set up a final date at the same venue on Sunday againstNigeria.
Just like five years ago in Egypt - when Algeria beat Senegal 1-0 in the first round and did so again to win the title - the AFCON final will be contested between two teams who met in the group stage.
Ivory Coast lost 1-0 to the Nigerians in Abidjan on January 18 and followed that by suffering a harrowing 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea four days later. It was their heaviest ever home defeat and it made them the first Cup of Nations hosts to lose two group matches since the Ivorians themselves in 1984.
Coach Jean-Louis Gasset was sacked, and the team waited to find out if they would somehow stay in the competition thanks to other results. In the end they did, scraping through as the last of the four best third-placed teams, saved because Ghana conceded twice in injury time to draw with Mozambique in their last group match.
Emerse Fae, the former Elephants midfielder who had never managed a team before, took over on an interim basis, albeit only after an audacious attempt to hire Ivory Coast's 2015 AFCON-winning coach Herve Renard on a short-term deal failed. He has overseen an astonishing revival.
"After the humiliation against Equatorial Guinea, we looked ourselves in the mirror and said what needed to be said," admitted midfielder Franck Kessie. "We saw we couldn't do any worse."
They ousted holders Senegal on penalties in the last 16 after being saved by a late penalty equaliser from Kessie in normal time. Then they somehow beat Mali in the quarter-finals, coming back from a goal down to win 2-1 in extra time despite playing most of the match down
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