Day 2 AFCON 2013 Quarterfinals – Nigeria v Ivory Coast results

Nigerian fans celebrating Nigeria beating Ivory Coast 2-1.
Source: Twitter

Day two of the AFCON 2013 South Africa promised to be an entertaining day, because African giants Nigeria and Ivory Coast the favourites to take the cup were going to go head to head. This was for many people the final before the final, unfortunate for one of the teams as there had to be a winner and a loser.

Ivory Coast v Nigeria

Nigeria had a bad start to the tournament with many people believing that this was not their best squared considering the amount of football talent in Nigeria. They only just managed to get into the quarterfinals by winning their last game against Ethiopia by 2 goals to nil from the penalty spot.

Ivory Coast on the other hand had dominated their group, by clinching 2 wins before they had to sweat to come back from a 2-0 deficit against Algeria who brought the game to the Ivoirians only to draw the match 2-2.

Coming into the match the Ivoirians were the favourites, with many thinking this Nigerian squad was going to book their flights back to Nigeria after their match, but it was not to be so. Nigeria the super eagles finally showed up to the AFCON 2012. They had their best showing of the tournament so far, they attacked the Ivoirians from the get go, so it was not surprise when they scored first(Emenike) even though I felt the Ivoirian goal keeper should have block that ball since it was in his direction. In the second half the Ivoirians finally showed up to the match in an effort to fight back, they were rewarded for their efforts when they scored from a beautiful header (Tiote). This was not to be their day as later in the second half the Nigerians scored a beautiful and powerful shot into the top corner (Sunday Mba) of the Ivoirian net.

Ivory Coast the favourites are out, in the quarterfinals of the AFCON 2013, they join the hosts South Africa and Cape Verde in the teams eliminated in the quarterfinals.

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