Watching that game too. Yeah Burkina Faso has been doing so well - they have more top4 finishes in the last 5 AFCONs than any other team, thrice in the semis. I was always impressed by their results as I could usually name a player or two from many African teams, but I hardly remember a stand out player from Burkina Faso. What’s their food like?
AFCON 2023 (2024): AFCON 2025 Qualifiers
- Thread starter Rood
- Start date
Cape Verde seems like an amazing destination during winter time. Would love to visit myself, but Seychelles is higher up in the list. Just wish they part of the tournament.
Was in Egypt this time last month, lovely experience, beautiful scenery. That being said, frustrated the Egyptians are through.
Algeria losing to Mauritania.
Hot and flavorful. Lot of rice or starch with meat based stews.
They're past their cycle. Both coach and team. Feghouli and Slimani being in the squad is a bit disturbing, and they should have been retired after they failed to make the World Cup. Today's selection (Mahrez is dropped too) is a bit too late.
Senegal (in comparison) have done really well blooding in new talent to their team in between tournaments. Even when Mane retires they'll be in the mix
I agree completely. It's one of the reasons why I wasn't expecting much from this afcon. Our manager has been terrible at blooding in young talent and relying on Mandi/Slimani/Bounedjah/Feghouli/Mahrez etc...
The worst part of it is we actually have plenty of young talent, he chose not to blood them in. Oh and another thing our results without Bennacer are terrible, even in our prime. He's basically been a one man midfield for us.
Good point, is he injured?
Yeah, he did his acl for Milan and just came back, we still decided to take him but he got injured first game against Angola.
Belmadi’s line ups have been hard to understand so far.
It would be a real failure for Algeria to get out so soon
It would be a real failure for Algeria to get out so soon
Yeah he'll be sacked tomorrow if we're out here.Tbh we don't deserve to win this game, Mauritania have been far better.
Good job by Angola, resolute defending and clinical when needed
Burkina Faso were wasteful up front and careless in defense. They should still get through.
Burkina Faso were wasteful up front and careless in defense. They should still get through.
Incredible achievement by Mauritania.
Quality from Mauritania. Deserved the win from what I saw.
Can't remember a tournament where so many of the big teams have struggled.
Can't remember a tournament where so many of the big teams have struggled.
Really deserved. They had so many chances and openings to kill the game off
This is the most serious team I’ve seen from Angola.
We’ll see If destiny has a Cape Verde vs Angola match in store. Sizeable rivalry
We’ll see If destiny has a Cape Verde vs Angola match in store. Sizeable rivalry
Mauritania deserved to qualify based on the quality of their 2 goals against Angola alone (they lost, but still)
They deserve to qualify based on their performances in general, unlucky to concede a last minute penalty against Burkina Faso. Today, they were better than us too. Solid defensively and deadly on the break, they'll surprise whoever they get in the next round.
I think it's a good thing in general for African football as it shows the traditional weaker teams are getting stronger, long gone are the days of the 5-0, 4-0 group games in the AFCON, last Afcon felt like the beginning of that, the smaller teams have only gotten stronger since.
Edit: Namibia is another one to look out for tomorrow.
I am absolutely loving this tournament so far
Mauritanian pundit after their win today:
Feck the haters of this tournament.
Feck the haters of this tournament.
Best ACN of my lifetime
Indeed. I agree with that, even with my own team being shit, I’m loving this tournament as a whole more than any other before.
Chris Hughton has been dismissed as Ghana coach. Reports coming out Belmadi will resign as Algeria coach. The aftermath of afcon is also dramatic.
As someone who's culturally very very close to Somalia, seeing the first ever Somali ref last night in this important game was really special
I thought he had a good game overall, didn't get conned by all the Algerians theatrics.Wouldn’t that apply to basically all African countries?!
Where does the rivalry stem from? I understand both being lusophone countries but with Angola in the South and Cape Verde in the West, and Cape Verde not being Afcon regulars, you'll have had very few chances to play each other no?
Last edited:
There are some nuances
Competing to see who has the most contempt for outsiders from other African countries?
There has been some crazy finishes to matches this tournament. Glad to see some other teams aside from the usual ones getting wins and progressing to the knockouts.
Yeah i would agree. People tend to overestimate Copa America.
This edition of AFCON is really good, as the smaller teams seem to have caught up and the level is now more homogeneous between all the teams.
On the other hand the big nations are becoming more and more tactically sound. I remember some editions between 2000-2010 where they were playing « who can dribble and play on his own the most ».
All in all this edition is very enjoyable
I know Cape Verde has a reputation for xenophobia but is that a thing with Angola too?
In my experience North African food very different from SubSaharan - won't typically find much hot food or rice in Morocco for example
Think Morocco and Senegal would be the 2 Faves now.
They already were pretournament
Let's see if Morocco can live up to it tonight though, lots of surprises so far
Yes. Angola isn't a popular tourist destination but the few Africans I know who have gone for work there all have awful stories. Mozambique as well.
You're royalty in these countries if they don't think you're African though.
More of a cultural thing. Cape Verde has more nationals living abroad than in their home country, and a big part of the community is in Portugal, where they also interact with a lot of Angolan people.
Not so sure about Morrocco. Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde are at least as good in this tournament and I think people should keep an eye on these two as potential dark horses. I also think a lot are underrating Nigeria - joint best defence so far from a tough group, with a lot of individual potential match-winners in the squad.
Makes sense.
Greatest cup competition ever.
Shame Ghana have embarrassed me so badly
Shame Ghana have embarrassed me so badly
Ah. This is your start of darknessGreatest cup competition ever.
Shame Ghana have embarrassed me so badly