Updated7. February 2024, 9:41 p.m.
Football: Nigeria in CAN final after penalties
The Nigerians eliminated South Africa after an incredible end to the match.
The Nigerians are exultant, they are in the final.
AFP
Nigeria qualified for its eighth African Cup final by defeating South Africa (1-1, 4 tab to 2) after having believed they won 2-0 much earlier, Wednesday at Bouake.
Another epic end to the CAN match! The Super Eagles thought they were holding on to their victory when their star Victor Osimhen thought he scored the 2-0 goal (85th). But it was refused after viewing because there was a foul at the start of the action… in the area by Alhassane Yusuf on Percy Tau.
The score went from 2-0 to 1-1 in a matter of seconds as Teboho Mokoena converted the penalty and completely reconfigured the match. Khuliso Mudau should have even ended the suspense but he sent his match point over the bar (93rd).
The entire South African bench jumped, Mudau held his head with both hands, but the chance of Bafana Bafana (the Boys) had just passed.
Stanley Nwabali shows up
In extra time, Victor Osimhen, who had obtained the opening penalty from William Troost-Ekong, pushed again, but he had to go through the “penos”.
And this time, specialist Ronwen Williams, who stopped four shots on goal against Cape Verde (0-0, 2-1 tab) in the quarters, did not miss any. The only Nigerian failure, that of Ola Aina, went into the clouds.
But in the cages of the Super Eagles stood the little-known Stanley Nwabali, also a goalkeeper in South Africa, at the modest Chippa United. He stopped strikes from Teboho Mokoena and Evidence Makgopa.
Kelechi Iheanacho didn’t tremble to score the shot that sent Nigeria to its eighth CAN final. The Nigerians won those of 1980, 1994 and 2013.
The Super Eagles still thought they had won earlier when Terem Moffi, for his first minutes in the competition, who had just replaced Osimhen (115th), was heading towards 2-1, but defender Gomolemo Kekena stopped him and was sent off .
In the end, Victor Osimhen, the name of the best African player in 2023, is only one step away from his sacred mission, winning the CAN.
Suffering from his abdomen two days before the match, he did indeed have his devastating backstroke when he plunged between three South Africans and pushed Mothobi Mvala, who was nevertheless imperial against Morocco (2- 0) in the round of 16.
Four out of four against South Africa
Osimhen is doing a lot of things for the Super Eagles, but he has only scored one goal in the tournament so far and leaves the penalties to his captain Troost-Ekong.
The Napoli scorer slipped a little word into the ear of the shooter, who deceived the specialist Williams by hitting full center, his second penalty of the tournament, after that against the Ivory Coast (1-0) in groups, already obtained by Osimhen.
Nigeria maintains its hold on South Africa, which it beat for the fourth time in four in CAN, notably victorious in another semi-final in 2000.
Bafana Bafana had not reached the last four since that year.
Their coach Hugo Broos, crowned with Cameroon in 2017, will not win a second CAN with another country, as the Frenchman Hervé Renard managed with Zambia (2012) and Ivory Coast (2015).
The Portuguese José Peseiro, who is competing in his first CAN, is in the race for a perfect baptism.
(AFP)