Haha, just noticed it's Barrada playing instead of him....
I sure hope Belhanda's hurt in some way because Abdel Barrada is not a good football player. I remember him from his PSG B days, and he was simply not good enough.
Belhanda came off the bench, had one good chance which he created on his own but this match was another poor one (slightly better than the first, but thats not saying much). Manucho missed a sitter at the end of the match for Angola but neither team created enough and a missed opportunity for either team to put themselves in a good position to advance.
I know you can't judge teams on one performance, but none of the teams in Group A have what it takes to make the finals, Morocco is decent on the ball but couldn't break down Angola. Angola are strong defensively but rely too much on Manucho who is essentially a target striker, South Africa no creativity and Cape Verde are happy just to be in the tournament
DR Congo look like a good team, considering they are ranked outside the top 100 Of course thats due to the fact their federation is crap and many of their best players retire early but have seemed to come back now
This game has been better than both games from yesterday, more open but neither side can finish (Congo DR hit the post)
with all respect to Niger, but they are not a good team at all, probably on the level of the likes of Moldova, Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands in Europe...the fact they made this tournament twice in a row is already a good result for them but I hate watching teams like them
Amazing how a country of half a million like Cape Verde can knock out Cameroon in the qualifiers and stand a very good chance of making it to the quarterfinals. I can't remember a country of such a small population in the African Cup.
DR Congo has a good team, with many familiar faces from our domestic league, like Mandanda, Matumona and Mulemo. But their most important player is Dieumerci Mbokani, the Anderlecht striker. Too bad he has such a rotten character, otherwise, he could play for any top side.
pretty good game between Ethiopia and Zambia where Zambia lead 1:0 at halftime. Ethiopia started the brighter team, missed a golden chance and then missed a penalty kick but the game turned around when the Ethiopian goalkeeper was sent off after a kung-fu type of kick when he left his box to stop a Zambian one on one. Zambia score in injury time of the first half.
maybe, but Niger are horrible, were last year and were in the opening game...Burkina Faso aren't any better
I was impressed with Ethiopia though, it helps that most of their squad play in the domestic league and they were training together longer than the heavily European-based squads
Burkina Faso equalize in the 94th minute against a 10-man Nigeria. Nigeria should have killed the game off but they missed their chances. They showed some naivity as they were still going for the kill in injury time and got caught with only 4 players defending deep in the final minute...
5 of the opening 6 matches ended in draws, if it wasn't for a horrible mistake by Niger's GK that game would have been most likely a draw as well
Algeria-Tunisia will probably be a "Vaha special"...0:0 with probably 2-3 shots in the entire game, though really both teams should go for the win I can't see Vaha doing that
Algeria-Tunisia will probably be a "Vaha special"...0:0 with probably 2-3 shots in the entire game, though really both teams should go for the win I can't see Vaha doing that
Ivory Coast lead 1:0 (Yaya Toure) after 25 minutes...but Adebayor was one on one with the keeper only 2 minutes in but somehow didn't manage to have a shot on target, he miscontrolled the ball while trying to round the keeper
Of course thats due to the fact their federation is crap and many of their best players retire early but have seemed to come back now
