हाउ गाबोन एंड क़ुअतोरिअल ग़ुइनेअ २०१२ प्लेएड आउट.

The actual Competition.
On match day one in group A co-host Equatorial Guinea defeated Libya by one goal to nil.On the second match of the group,Zambia was the surprise winner over favorite Senegal by two goals to one.
In group B,Ivory Coast escaped with a one nil victor over Sudan,while Angola defeated Burkina Faso by two goals to one.
In group C,co-host Gabon got an impressive two nil victory over Niger.In the second match in this group a hard fought match between Tunisia and Morocco ended with Tunisia on top by two goals to one.
In group D,Ghana opened the competition with a one goal to zero defeat of Botswana.Mali helped themselves to a one goal to zero defeat of Guinea.
Match day two went into high gear on Wednesday with Senegal putting in a disappointing effort against co-host nation Equatorial Guinea.They lost by two goals to one and became the first nation to be eliminated from this years African cup of nations.What a great disappointment for the Teranga Lions who came into this competition with such high hopes.Equatorial Guinea became the first nation to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition with this,their second victory in a row in this African cup of nations.In the other game in this group Libya and Zambia played to a 2-2 draw.
In group b, Ivory Coast beat a tough Burkina Faso side 2-0.This gave them qualification into the knockout stages of the competition.In the second match in this group Sudan and Angola played to an exciting 2-2 draw.
In group C,it was Tunisia beating Niger by two goals to one to move closer to qualification.The qualification came later at night when co-host Gabon beat Morocco in a three goals to two thriller.So from this group, Tunisia and Gabon moved on to the knockout stages to the competition while Morocco and Niger are out of the competition.
In group D,the record for the worse defeat of an opponent set back in 1970 was matched when Guinea beat debutant Botswana by 6-1 in a one sided encounter.Video replayed confirm a refused goal by Feindouno of Guinea that could have made the final score 7-1.In the second encounter of the group Ghana defeated Mali 2-0 to move closer to qualification.There was a beautiful set piece goal from Ghana ace player Asamoah Gyan.
In match day three,group A matches that were played simultaneously saw Senegal go down to Libya by 2 goals to 1.Zambia beat co-host nation Guinea Equatorial by 1 goal to o to move on as head of group A.Equatorial Guinea who had already qualified move on as runners up to Zambia in this group.Senegal, the big disappointment of the competition goes home with 0 points from three matches played.So in the quarterfinals Zambia would be playing against Sudan while Equatorial Guinea would play against Ivory Coast.
In group C,Gabon ended up as head of group by beating Tunisia 1-0.The other match of this group saw Morocco pick up three points by beating Niger by 1-0.
In group D,Ghana had a 1-1 draw with Guinea,while Mali beat Botswana by 1-0.So Ghana and Mali move on to the knockout stages of the competition.Ghana will be playing the runners-up of group C,which is Tunisia,While Mali will go against co-host Gabon during the quarterfinals.
In the first quarterfinals of the competition,Zambia beat Sudan by 3 goals to 0.Captain Katongo, scored the second goal for his team on on penalty rebound that the Sudanese goalkeeper had stopped.They will move on to play against Ghana in the semi-finals.
The the second quarter finals,Ivory Coast beat co-host Equatorial Guinea by 3 goals to 0.Didier Drogba missed a penalty kick in the encounter but made amends by scoring two goals for his side to take his total for the tournament to 3 goals.Yaya Toure got the third goal for his side through a beautiful spot kick.Ivory Coast moves on to play Mali in the semi-finals.
The third quarter finals of the competition matched Mali and co-host Gabon.The matched ended in a 1-1 tie before prolongation and penalty shootout. Mali survived the penalty shootout,winning by 5 made penalties to 4 for the Gabonese.So at this point both of the co-host nations were eliminated in the quarter finals of the competition.
The last of the quarterfinals matched Ghana and Tunisia.A very hard fought match ended at 1-1 during regulation.The Tunisian goalkeeper committed a big blunder in extra time,giving Andre Ayew the chance to fire his team into the semi-finals of the competition.So Ghana moves on and will play against Zambia in the other semi-finals of the competition.
In the first semi-finals match,Zambia pulled out a surprise by beating Ghana,my favorite to win it all by 1 goal to zero.Asomaoh Gyan,missed a penalty in the 7th minute of play and the Ghanians never recovered after the missed penalty.Zambia got its goal in the 79th minute of play through Emmanuel Muyuka who came into the game as a second half substitute.So the Ghana team will have to look for next year in South African to win its fifth African cup of Nations,the first one since 1982.Yes, it has been that far back since the black stars of Ghana last won this trophy.
Ivory Coast took on Mali in the other semi-finals of the competition and Gervinho got his first goal of the Competition.A beautiful run from the center of the field took him all the way to the Mali six meter box,before he slide in the winner for his side.That was all the scoring in a match that the Malians fail to show up.So the finals of the 2012 edition of the African cup of nations has been set with Ivory Coast going against a surprising Zambian side.
The match for who gets the third place in this years competition was won by 2 goals to 0 by Mali over Ghana.The Ghana side was still mourning from their semi-finals lost to Zambia.
The finals of this years competition took place in Iibreville and surprise,surprise,it was the Zambian national team,known as the chipolopolo that were crowned champions of Africa.The match itself was entertaining despite the fact that it ended in a goalless draw through regulation and extra time.It was during the penalty shootouts that Zambia got their first continental trophy in the history of the nation.They outlast Ivory Coast by 8 shots to 7 to emerge as champions.Once again Ivory Coast came up short on the big stage.Didier Drogba missed a penalty kick about 13 minutes to the end of the game that could have given his side the trophy.Congratulations to the Chipolopolo of Zambia for not going 0 and 3 in finals competition.They came up shot in 1974 and 1994 but not this time around,pulling out a huge upset in the finals.