Big powers Ivory Coast and Nigeria collide as football in Africa takes giant steps
And so, after a tournament of shocks, the final of the Africa Cup of Nations will be a meeting of the 2015 and 2013 winners, Ivory Coast against Nigeria. But if the finalists feel familiar, the tournament has not. Tournaments often pursue their own logic but, developing certain themes from the last edition in Cameroon, this Cup of Nations has felt like significant progress.
For Ivory Coast, the mood has changed radically over the past two weeks. After the anger of the group stage, which led to cars being burned out after the 4-0 defeat to Equatorial Guinea seemed to have eliminated them, Ivory Coast have ridden a wave of disbelieving euphoria. They made it past Senegal, despite being 1-0 down after 86 minutes; Mali, again trailing 1-0 and down to 10 men after 90 minutes; and then, more comfortably, DR Congo, 1-0 in the semi-final. With Sébastien Haller and Simon Adingra returning to fitness, the sense of miracles has waned and the hosts now look the very good team they were expected to be before the start of the tournament.
Nigeria have followed a similar journey. If there is something slightly unsatisfactory about two sides who played each other in the group stage (Nigeria won 1-0) meeting again in the final, there is something disorienting, an implication of randomness, when those sides finished second and third in the group behind Equatorial Guinea. What that does indicate, though, is how the finalists have grown into the tournament.
A dismal build-up had led to widespread criticism in Nigeria of the coach, José Peseiro, whose protracted appointment and continued employment despite delays in paying and then a reduction of his salary remain mystifying. But he has created a solid, effective team that has conceded only
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