The chaotic scenes amid the group stages of the African Cup of Nations continued this evening, during Cote d’Ivoire’s meeting with Sierra Leone.
Pepe amongst the goals
The 2nd round of AFCON group stage fixtures is set to come to a close in short order.
Algeria and Equatorial Guinea are currently locked in the early exchanges of a meeting at the Douala Stadium, a matchup which the former are expected to emerge comfortable victors from.
As alluded to above, though, it is in fact Sunday’s other Group E fixture which has instead firmly grabbed the headlines, owing to a frankly remarkable finish.
The clash in question saw the aforementioned Cote d’Ivoire (The Ivory Coast) face off with Sierra Leone in Douala.
Les Elephants headed into proceedings no doubt confident in their chances of booking a spot in the knockout rounds of the competition, on the back of a 1-0 downing of Equatorial Guinea during the week.
And, as Sunday’s action rolled deep into injury time, Patrice Beaumelle’s men looked well on their way to precisely that.
This comes after Sebastien Haller, teed up by Wilfried Zaha, put the favourites in front with 25 minutes on the clock, before Arsenal’s Nicolas Pepe directed home a trademark left-footed finish to guide Cote d’Ivoire into a 2-1 advantage just beyond the hour mark:
Zaha and Haller link-up to give Ivory Coast the lead ? pic.twitter.com/Yl1nGPo94n
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) January 16, 2022
Nicolas Pépé has caressed this into the back of the net ?
That last replay angle ? pic.twitter.com/k3s0si9ifg
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) January 16, 2022
Aurier between the posts
As alluded to above, however, a twist in the tale was yet to come…
In frankly remarkable scenes, a goalkeeping howler, attributed to in at least some part by the dreadful condition of the pitch, allowed Alhaji Kamara to bag an all-important equaliser for Sierra Leone with less than 30 seconds of injury time remaining:
?️ “INCREDIBLE, INCREDIBLE!”
Sierre Leone have been gifted a dramatic late equaliser after the pitch conditions led to a goalkeeping howler ?
You have to see this to believe it! ? pic.twitter.com/H1XIFmimkx
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) January 16, 2022
The chaos didn’t stop there, though, as, in the process of gifting Sierra Leone their 2nd of the evening, Badra Ali Sangare managed to injure himself, resulting in former Tottenham full-back Serge Aurier taking his place between the posts for the game’s closing exchanges.
In the 93rd minute, Ivory Coast keeper Badra Ali Sangaré suffered an injury while conceding the equalizer to Sierra Leone.
He had to be stretchered off, and captain Serge Aurier stepped in goal for the final minutes ? pic.twitter.com/sr4ymFZmpW
— B/R Football (@brfootball) January 16, 2022
Never a dull day at the AFCON…
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