Dramatic football stories continue

Mohamed Salah, who was injured, remained in the cup with a dramatic story

By Alireza Bahrami

TEHRAN: In the 120-year history of modern football, there have been some countries that once had strong and champion teams, but have not had that past glory for years. It has been the same in Asia and the Middle East. For example, Kuwait was once one of the powers of Asian football, but it has not been a significant presence in tournaments for years. But football has always contributed to phenomena. Dramatic wins sometimes work like movies and novels. Now, a number of these events are happening in the Asian Nations Cup and the African Nations Cup.

In the African Cup, which has been accompanied by many surprises this year, the contending teams Algeria, Ghana and Tunisia were eliminated in the first round. The host team, Ivory Coast, also miraculously made it to the knockout stages despite 2 losses in 3 games. Emilio Nsue, who won the Euro under-19 and under-21 with the Spanish national team, with a hat-trick in one game and 2 goals in the game against the host, made the Guinea-Bissau team the leader of the group stage for the first time.

But the most dramatic fate happened to Egypt, a country in the Middle East. Egypt managed to get ahead of Cape Verde 2-1 with a goal in the 3+90 minute and was on the threshold of promotion, but in the 90+9 minute, they received the equalizing goal, to be one step away from elimination. But this was not the end of the work and in the other competition of the group, Ghana, which had defeated Mozambique with 2 goals until the 90+1 minute and saw itself as the second team in the group in the elimination stage, in a surprising event in the 90+1 minute and the 90+4 received two goals. In less than 3 minutes, Ghana, which had been promoted, was completely eliminated from the cup, and Egypt, which was completely eliminated, returned to the cup.

The Palestinian football team turned despair into hope

In the Asian Cup, which is being held in Qatar in the Middle East, there were no shortage of surprising countries. Although Vietnam and Malaysia remained at the bottom of the table of their groups, they had the potential to make surprises in some half-times.

Indonesia advanced to the elimination stage with 1 win and 2 losses. But the most special climb was for Palestine. With a win against Hong Kong in the third game, this team gained four points and advanced to the elimination stage of the Asian Nations Cup for the first time. With their first win in 3 periods in the Asian Nations Cup, they advanced as the third team in the group.

Palestinian players who went to Qatar with sad faces because of the Gaza war made history.