Wrap Up
Glory and shame
Africa Cup of Nations 2015 hosts Equatorial Guinea reached the
semifinals for the first in their history. However, their heroics
were overshadowed by the crowd problems.
T
he 2015 Africa Cup of
Nattions is unarguably
Equatorial Guinea’s
best ever Nations Cup
performance. The Equaguineans
reached the last four of the
tournament on their second
appearance in the Afrca’s premier
national team competition.
It is also safe to say that
Equatorial Guinea are the
surprises of the showpiece,
having had to prepare late
for the tounament and having
replaced their mentor Andoni
Goikoetxea with Estaden Becker
just a couple of weeks before the
tournament started.
In addition, Equatoria Guinea
reached the semifinals without a
loss and having conceded only
three goals in their four games
leading to the last four.
Equatorial Guinea’s first two
AFCON 2015 fixtures resulted in
two stalemates against Congo
(1-1) and Gabon (1-1). The
Nzalang Nacional then beat
Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang’s
Gabon 2-0 to book a place in the
quarterfinals. Javier Balboa and
substitute Edu Salvador were
on target as they marched in the
quarterfinals to play Tunisia.
Estaben Becker’s men were
lucky to be awarded a
MAKING HISTORY! Javier Balboa celebrates
with teammates after netting twice to send
Nzalang Nacional to the semifinals.
controversial penalty in the 90th
minute. Javier Balboa converted
with ease and sent the match
to extra time. Balboa scored the
winning goal for the Nzalang
Nacional with a sublime free kick
in the extra time, sending his side
to the last four for the first time in
their history.
In the semifinals, Equatorial
Guinea could not do anything as
they went to the half time break
trailing by 2 goals against runner-
ups Ghana. The second period
of the match match saw Ghana
continue their dominance over
the hosts and Andre Ayew scored
the third goal in the 75th minute.
The home fans started throwing
missiles on Ghana fans, resulting