Luis Núñez-Villavearán
Updated Friday, February 2, 2024-20:36
On the afternoon of January 24, an earthquake shook the benches of the Africa Cup. Three coaches left their positions just a few hours apart after the poor results of their national teams in the African championship.
Tom Saintfiet
resigned as Gambia coach after three defeats in three games and Ghana dismissed
Chris Hughton
for failing to qualify for the next phase after two draws and one defeat.
More shocking, however, was the dismissal of
Ivory Coast's
Jean-Louis Gasset
for "insufficient results." A euphemism for the Ivorian Football Federation to terminate its coach's contract for failing to qualify the team to the round of 16 unless a miracle occurred.
What is incredible is that the miracle occurred. Although the
Elephants
, as the Ivory Coast team is known, lost two of three games in the group stage, 0-1 against Nigeria and 0-4 against Equatorial Guinea, they were third with the three points obtained by their pyrrhic 1-0 victory against Guinea Bissau. They needed a carom that was based on Morocco beating Zambia and Mozambique and Ghana drawing. Something that happened when the game was already dying, the Mozambican goals came in the 90th and in the 94th, Reinildo's last, to make the final score 2-2.
In short, Ivory Coast goes to the round of 16 without a coach and the Federation begins to desperately look for candidates to face the tie that would be, neither more nor less, than against the top favorites and current champions, Senegal. Given the urgency and desperation of not being able to find anyone in the middle of a tournament organized by themselves, they go so far as to ask France for a specific loan of
Hervé Renard
, current coach of the French women's team and with extensive experience in African football. France, of course, does not allow it.
Emergency
Finally, they don't get anyone and Gasset
's former assistant
,
Emerse Fae
, sits on the bench . With a man without experience on the bench, who described his team's group stage as an "accident", Ivory Coast faced a dog-eat-dog duel against Senegal. They started losing in a match dominated by the Senegalese until in the 73rd minute the figure of the former Barça player,
Kessie
, emerged . The footballer, who started on the bench, changes the dynamics of the match and takes the duel to extra time after converting a penalty when the 90 minutes of play had already expired.
The next 30 minutes there is a give and take between both teams until they reach penalties. A lottery in which anything could happen until
Kessie
wanted whatever he decided to happen. He scored the final goal and took a team that was mortally wounded to the quarterfinals, but revived like a phoenix. "I told my players not to give up and I didn't either,"
Fae
said after the clash.
So Ivory Coast will face Mali this Saturday in a quarterfinal that allows the Elephants and hosts of this Africa Cup to dream. "When you play at home with the support of the public it is wonderful and that gives you extra energy,"
Fae
explained in the post-match. And with Senegal gone and with the recent elimination of Morocco, the other great favorite for this tournament, why not dream of winning a title that the Ivorians have not won since 2015 with that magnificent generation of the Kolo
and
Yaya
Touré
,
Gervinho
and company. By the way,
Hervé Renard
was precisely the coach
.
"We must not get overexcited," the current coach put a stop to the euphoria regarding the situation that has been presented to the Ivorians.
Fae
is 40 years old and as a player he developed his career in France, Nantes and Nice, and in England, Reading. As a coach, his only experience on the bench was in the French fifth category at the head of Clermont Foot 63. Can this Cinderella succeed on his ivory bench, not a glass one? This Saturday, the next step.