AFCON FINAL: Cote d'Ivoire Beat Nigeria To Be Crowned 2023 Africa Champions

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The African Cup Of Nations has finally come to an end. The tournament has been entertaining, exciting and incredible throughout the period it was held from January to February this year. This post should have been dropped yesterday but I was finding it difficult to factor in what happened on Sunday night with my heavy heart so you may find these posts filled with my personal emotions but stay tuned with me as I head to the event that happened on Sunday night.

Nigeria, which is my country, went head to head against host nation Ivory Coast in the final of the AFCON. It was a match I really wanted the Super Eagles(Nigeria) to bring back the trophy home. Nigeria has been superb throughout the tournament no matter what some critics say, they had a goal and that was to win the AFCON but unfortunately, it did not go as many Nigerians hoped it would on Sunday night.

Before the match, I wrote a pre-match post and one of the things I highlighted in the post happened exactly and that was the hostility that will be in the stadium when Nigeria faces the host nations. I watched the game on a TV and when the camera went around the big stadium all I could see were Ivorian fans with orange jerseys and I could not find the Nigerian fans. It was as if they were not allowed to enter the stadium.

It was later posted on Twitter by a Nigerian who tried to attend the match live that the tickets were subsidized by the Ivory Coast government to as low as 5 dollars for Ivorians but were sold as high as 100 dollars for Nigerians who wanted to watch the match. They made it extremely difficult for Nigerians to attend the game which does not seem right but it happened and it played to their advantage which won them the match and the AFCON trophy.

Nigeria lost 2-1 to Ivory Coast on Sunday and I can't tell you how much it pains to see the team lose on Sunday. First of all the referee played against Nigeria because he kept on blowing fouls against Nigeria players even when there was a clear view that the players did not commit a foul on the Ivorian players. The referee was too soft when calling fouls on Ivory Coast players which made me wonder if he was already paid off to officiate in that way because it was quite obvious.

There were a lot of errors in the game on Sunday. I don't understand why the Nigerian coach decided to start Chukwueze instead of Simon because it is clear Simon has been more lethal on the attacking front than Chukwueze throughout the tournament. Aina who was solid throughout the tournament picked the wrong day to go off form because he got cooked by the young talent from Ivory Coast Simon Adingra. Aina was so disorganized and that was how the Ivory Coast attack exploited him and their second goal came from Aina's position.

It was heartbreaking for all Nigerians and it has been the topic here in school. The Super Eagles did their best because at first no one expected them to reach this final but they did and gave Nigerians hope. Congratulations to Ivory Coast and we look forward to the next AFCON. So guys that will be all for now. Thanks for stopping by and have a good day.

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