Ivory Coast was beaten Thursday by Nigeria (1-0) on a penalty from William Troost-Ekong, a result which places the organizing country of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) in third position in the group A.
With this result, Nigeria takes 2nd place in the group tied with Equatorial Guinea (4 points) and ahead of Ivory Coast which has three points.
The atmosphere at the Alassane Ouattara stadium in Ebimpé, a suburb of Abidjan, was a notch above that of the opening match on Saturday, with nearly 50,000 supporters who pushed behind the Elephants, in vain.
The Ivorians were showered by a penalty awarded in the 55th minute to the Super Eagles, after a foul by Ousmane Diomandé on Naples striker Victor Osimhen, in the area.
The Nigerian captain, William Troost-Ekong transformed it with a full-axis strike to give his team the advantage.
Before this goal, the two teams had neutralized each other during a first period where Ivory Coast had the ball and Nigeria was clumsy with no shots on target.
In the 8th minute, the Nigerians could have opened the scoring, when the best African footballer in 2023, Victor Osimhen outpaced the Ivorian defense before hitting over the top.
Christian Kouamé, established in place of Jonathan Bamba, responded immediately, but came up against Nigeria’s goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali.
In the 31st minute, Ivorian midfielder Seko Fofana fired a powerful long-range shot that was repelled by Nwabali.
In a more choppy second act, the Ivorians had few opportunities to get back on track even if Seko Fofana could have found the fault in the 73rd minute with a shot from outside the area, off target.
The nine minutes of added time granted by Algerian referee Mustapha Ghorbal changed nothing: Ivory Coast is the first host country to lose a match in the group stage since Equatorial Guinea in 2012.
Earlier in the day, Equatorial Guinea took the lead in Group A, beating Guinea-Bissau 4 goals to 2.
On Monday, Ivory Coast will face Equatorial Guinea, in a match that it must win to finish in the top two and hope to see the round of 16 of “its” CAN.
Nigeria will face Guinea-Bissau, already eliminated, after its two defeats in as many matches.
The first two in the group are qualified as well as the four best third-placed teams.
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