The final games in the pool stages took place with Cameroon and Tunisia disappointing yet again while Ghana got the job done.
The last 16 line up
So we know who’s who for the knockout stages. All the big guns are there. Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria and Morocco. Madagascar are also in the mix in this their first Africa Cup of Nations. Uganda have made it to the second round for the first time since 1978. Back then it was an eight team tournament. Forty years on it’s 24 sides. Tunisia struggled to move on. They drew 0-0 with Mauritania. As it neared full-time, the Mauritanians were really going for it. They knew a win would give them four points and the Tunisians were very aware that a defeat would send them home. Intriguing stuff and the Tunisians held their nerve.
Rank
Senegal are Africa’s best team according to the lords of football administration at Fifa, the world game’s governing body. Yet they qualified behind Algeria in Group C. Tunisia are the continent’s second best team, say the Fifa statistics. But they looked very ordinary during their final Group E game against Mauritania. "There are things we have to work on to get better,” admitted Tunisia skipper Youssef Msakni. “The good thing is that we’re into the second round.”
Vindication
And in that second round Tunisia will play Ghana in Ismailia. There was an awful to-do in the Ghana camp before the Cup of Nations. The country’s president had to have a chat with Asamoah Gyan to persuade him not to retire from international football after the record goalscorer was told he wouldn’t be skipper nor in the starting line-up. Coach Kwesi Appiah decided that it was time for Jordan Ayew to lead the attack with his brother André. The dynamic duo have repaid Appiah’s faith by scoring three of Ghana’s four goals that led them to claim Group F ahead of Cameroon.
Anticipation
Cameroon’s own dynamic duo - Clarence Seedorf and Patrick Kluivert – have steered the defending champions into the last 16. There was a win over Guinea Bissau followed by 0-0 draws with Ghana and Benin. It has not been spectacular, lament the critics. But at least they are there in the knockout stages.
Lift to the scaffold
While Seedorf and Kluivert might be feeling kind of blue. It must be bitter sweet for the South Africans. Mali did them a favour by beating Angola 1-0 in the final game in Group E. Well, kind of. Angola’s demise means that South Africa became one of the four best third-placed teams and that gives Stuart Baxter’s men the chance to play on Day 16 in Cairo against … Egypt.
