Ivory Coast savour AFCON triumph but future is unclear
The Elephants really should have been eliminated from their own competition in the group stage after losing 4-0 to Equatorial Guinea on January 22, their heaviest ever home defeat. That would have made them just the second host country in 30 years to go out of the AFCON in the group stage, but instead they squeezed through as the last of the four best third-placed teams.
Their group-stage showing led to the departure of veteran French coach Jean-Louis Gasset, who had been in charge since May 2022. He was replaced by Emerse Fae, a former Ivorian international who had never coached before. Yet Fae oversaw an incredible turnaround in the team's fortunes, as the Ivorians came from behind to beat holders Senegal in the last 16 and overcame a 1-0 deficit with 10 men to beat Mali in the quarter-finals.
After beating the Democratic Republic of Congo 1-0 in the last four, it felt somehow inevitable that they would win the final, and it was apt that they came from behind to beat Nigeria 2-1 to lift the trophy. "We are miracle survivors, but I think we had to go through everything we went through in order to really understand that it all could end at any moment," said midfielder Seko Fofana.
"Take the example of Senegal, who had won all their games and then got knocked out by us. We were in difficulty, with two defeats in the group stage. We adapted to a difficult context and did what we had to do to make the country proud."
It also felt fitting that the match-winner in the semi-final and final should be Sebastien Haller, given how remarkable the Borussia Dortmund striker's own story has been. A year ago he was just returning to action after treatment for testicular cancer. Seen as the leader of the Ivorian team here, he suffered an
Read on besoccer.com
