Albion at the African Cup of Nations: Matchday Three Round Up
All three of Brighton and Hove Albion’s representatives at the African Cup of Nations are into the round of 16 of the tournament – and two of them will meet for a spot in the quarter finals.
Both Gaetan Bong’s Cameroon side and Leon Balogun’s Nigeria finished second in their respective groups, setting up a heavyweight clash between two of the giants of African football in the next round.
Bong was an unused substitute for the The Indomitable Lions as they drew 0-0 with Benin in their final game in Group F.
A victory would have sent Cameroon through as winners, but they couldn’t find a way past a Benin side who stuck 11 men behind the ball knowing that a draw would send them through as one of the four best runners up.
Nigeria meanwhile lost their final fixture in Group B to Madagascar, who as a result finished ahead of the Super Eagles in the table.
Madgascar have proven to be quite the surprise package so far in their debut tournament. They took seven points out of nine and were gifted the lead against Nigeria thanks to a mistake by Balogun.
It was the sort of defensive lapse that has littered Balogun’s Brighton career so far – and perhaps makes the £3.5m capture of Matt Clarke from Portsmouth a little more understandable.
Midfielder John Ogu played an admittedly under hit pass back to Balogun but even so, the Albions centre back looked like he was in his own little world – à la West Bromwich Albion away in the FA Cup – as he dithered alarmingly, allowing Lalaina Nomenjanahary to pounce on the loose ball and advance to open the scoring.
Carolus Andriamatsinoro’s free kick eight minutes after the restart deflected in off Leicester City midfielder Wilfred Ndidi to give Madagascar a famous victory.
As a result, Balogun and Bong will now be in direct opposition for a place in the last eight. They will meet in Alexandria on Saturday at 5pm in what is the undoubted tie of the round.
More exciting than all of that though is the news that Percy Tau the Lion of Judah is also into the round of 16. South Africa may have lost their final group game 1-0 to Morocco, but their three points in Group D were enough to take them through as one of the four best third-place sides.
They needed several results to go their way for that to happen but the stars aligned for Tau and Bafana Bafana. Mali beat Angola 1-0 while Mauritania and Tunisia played out the exact goalless stalemate that was required for South Africa to sneak through thanks to their sole victory over Namibia on matchday two.
That 1-0 win saw Tau put in a man-of-the-match showing. It was the Lion of Judah’s pinpoint corner that was headed in by Bongani Zungu for the only goal with the BBC match report stating:
“The one difference between the two sides was one man – Percy Tau – the Brighton striker who’s been out on loan. He was the only player who looked like he could make a difference and indeed it was his corner that made the only goal of the game.”
Tau and South Africa face an uphill struggle in their next fixture, where they will face Mo Salah and hosts Egypt. That one also takes place on Saturday after Balogun and Bong have faced off – with the winners of the two Saturday games set to meet in the quarter finals, meaning there could be further Seagull-on-Seagull action to come if the Lion of Judah can inspire a shock against the Pharaohs.
