Football and its wonders

Ivory Coast

By Alireza Bahrami

TEHRAN: Football stories continue in the Asian Cup and the African Cup, because miracles are the nature of football.

A few days ago, I wrote about the dramatic football stories for Asian and Middle Eastern countries, in the Asian Cup and the African Cup. These stories continued in the elimination stage after the group stage.

In the Asian Cup, four teams played for the first time in the knockout phase of the 2023 Qatar Cup: Palestine, Syria, Indonesia and Tajikistan.

Palestine played the hosts, Qatar, in a stadium full of Qatari fans. They had a half-time lead, but with a goal in the last minute of the first half’s stoppage time and a penalty in the second half, they said goodbye to the tournament with dignity. In the next stage, Qatar defeated Uzbekistan in penalty kicks and went to the semi-finals.

Syria also faced Iran at this stage. Iran dominated the game for one half and scored a goal, but Syria compensated in the second half and finally lost in penalty kicks.

But Tajikistan showed that they want to become the Greece of Asia by winning against the United Arab Emirates in penalty kicks. Tajikistan qualified for the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup for the first time. Although they lost at this stage, with an own goal, to the other surprising team of the tournament, Jordan, but they dream of advancing to the 2026 World Cup for the first time.

In the African Cup, in the Ivory Coast, there have been no shortage of surprises. While Morocco, the surprise team of Qatar 2022 World Cup, was eliminated from the tournament, Ivory Coast became the surprise of the tournament.

In a miracle, Ivory Coast was able to reach the elimination stage with 3 points and a goal difference of -3 as one of the third teams in the group.

Because the football federation of this country thought that the team had no chance to advance to the elimination round after losing 4-0 in the third group match against Equatorial Guinea, they fired their head coach in the middle of the tournament.

Tajikistan

After the confirmation of Ivory Coast’s promotion to the elimination round, the country’s federation wanted to convince Renard (the head coach of the French women’s team) to go to Africa immediately with a loan offer to lead Ivory Coast against Senegal. This offer was rejected by the former head coach of Saudi Arabia.

However, in an incredible turn of events, Ivory Coast, the hosts of the tournament, who were left without a manager, eliminated the defending champions (Senegal). They won the penalty kicks and made their way to the quarter finals. They defeated Mali in this stage as well and reached the semifinals. Ivory Coast was reduced to 10 players from the 43rd minute when his player was sent off. They conceded a goal in the 71st minute and fell behind, scored an equalizing goal in the 90th minute and scored a second goal in the 120+2 minute and won.

Congo is another surprising team of this tournament. Congo reached the semi-finals with a 3-1 victory over Guinea. This was their first win in the tournament. Why? Because Congo advanced with 3 ties in the group stage. In the elimination phase, he reached this game with penalty kicks. With a victory, they came close to the medal.