AFCON 2023: Sylli National of Guinea silence Thunders of Equatorial Guinea

Posted : 29 January 2024

Tears flowed freely at the Alasane Ouattara Stadium on Sunday night when the team that has scored the highest goals so far in the African Cup of Nations tournament, the National Thunders of Equatorial Guinea, failed to strike against the Sylli Nationals of Guinea, losing 0-1 in a painful added time of 90+8 minutes.

Two woes befell the Thunder agents, with Federico Bikoro, who plays in Tunisia, receiving a red card in the 55th minute, and the current highest goal scorer with 5 goals missing a penalty kick advantage in the 66th minute when his shot hit the left upright post and bounced out as the Guinean Keeper dived to the right.

The god of soccer refused to let thunder strike the Sylli boys who played out their hearts in the game.

Diakite got a ball on the right flank and gave a diagonal pass into the box, which Mohammed Bayo, who plays in France, skillfully headed home in the 90+8th minute, causing the stadium to erupt in a loud roar after the plot of the Equatorial Guinea boys to drag the game into extra time failed.

Guinea will stay back at the Ouattara stadium on Friday, 2nd February at 9 pm to meet the winner of the Egypt versus DR Congo match scheduled at 9 pm. That will be after the Nigeria versus Angola quarterfinal at 6 pm.

This is the first-ever AFCON match between both countries. Equatorial Guinea, known as National Thunder, surprisingly topped Group A beating Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, and hosts Ivory Coast in that order on the table. They played a 1-1 draw with Nigeria, defeated Guinea Bissau 4-2, and outplayed hosts Ivory Coast 4-0, sparking street protests. They chalked up 7 points, scored 9 goals, the highest team score so far, and conceded 3 goals.

Guinea was only a lucky loser from Group C after drawing 1-1 with Cameroon, beating the Scorpions of Gambia by a lone goal, and falling to the Teranga Lions of Senegal 2-0. They had 4 points with Cameroon, placing 3rd as they could only score 2 goals and conceded 3 goals.

Equatorial Guinea is an underdog team that has reached the knockout stages in their last four appearances in 2012, 2015, 2021, and now.

Guinea lost their last six AFCON games at the knockout stages, failing to score in each of their last four, including a 0-3 defeat to Algeria in 2019 and a shocking 0-1 loss to Gambia in the last competition in 2021.

The Sylli National or Elephants, ranked 80th in the world, is making her 14th appearance at the AFCON but has only one podium finish in Ethiopia in 1976 when she played a 1-1 draw with Morocco, and the Gold was awarded to the North Africans.

Equatorial Guinea is ranked 88th and appearing for the 4th time. She co-hosted with Gabon in 2012 with a no-show performance but hosted in 2015 and ended up in 4th place in Malabo after losing via penalty kicks 2-4 and the real match goalless to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Emilio Nsue, aged 34, is the oldest player to score 5 goals in a single tournament, matching Kalusha Bwalya of Zambia in 1996 at 32.

AFCON 2023: Sylli National of Guinea silence Thunders of Equatorial Guinea

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