Equatorial Guinea revel in unexpected top spot in Group A

Equatorial Guinea have arguably been the biggest surprise of the Africa Cup of Nations do far, rivalled only perhaps by Cape Verde after they romped to top spot in Group A following a 4-0 victory over hosts Ivory Coast in a stunned Abidjan on Monday.

Coach Equatorial Guinea revel in unexpected top spot in Group A

Equatorial Guinea have arguably been the biggest surprise of the Africa Cup of Nations do far, rivalled only perhaps by Cape Verde after they romped to top spot in Group A following a 4-0 victory over hosts Ivory Coast in a stunned Abidjan on Monday.

Coach Juan Micha’s side had early played to a 1-1 draw with Nigeria and beat Guinea-Bissau 4-2 before completing one of the biggest shocks in Cup of Nations history against the Ivorians, inflicting on them a heaviest ever home defeat.

Emilio Nsue scored two goals to take his tournament tally to five and Pablo Gannet and Yannick Buyla added two more as the country of 1.6-million people swept aside the home team in a sensation shock.

"We knew the opponent had a lot of pressure on them which we took into account in our strategy," Micha said. "With our humility we made the effort to reach as far as possible against the big teams.

"We are working to reach the level of the big guys. What we want is to believe in ourselves and try to win every time. We must forget this match and plan for the rest of the competition."

Equatorial Guinea must wait to find out their last-16 opponents, but it will eb the third-place team in one of Groups C or D, potentially Cameroon, Guinea, Algeria, Angola or Burkina Faso. Such is their form, they might fancy themselves against any of those.

Goalkeeper Jesús Owono was named Man of the Match against Ivory Coast despite his side’s romping to victory, and praised the tactics of coach Micha.

“We had a great match tactically; we knew they were going to try to press us. We said to ourselves that if we resisted the first 15 minutes, the match would be for us,” he said.

“We had two great African teams in our group and proved that we were well prepared. We will continue to work as we have done so far to go as far as possible in the competition.”

’s side had early played to a 1-1 draw with Nigeria and beat Guinea-Bissau 4-2 before completing one of the biggest shocks in Cup of Nations history against the Ivorians, inflicting on them a heaviest ever home defeat.

Emilio Nsue scored two goals to take his tournament tally to five and Pablo Gannet and Yannick Buyla added two more as the country of 1.6-million people swept aside the home team in a sensation shock.

"We knew the opponent had a lot of pressure on them which we took into account in our strategy," Micha said. "With our humility we made the effort to reach as far as possible against the big teams.

"We are working to reach the level of the big guys. What we want is to believe in ourselves and try to win every time. We must forget this match and plan for the rest of the competition."

Equatorial Guinea must wait to find out their last-16 opponents, but it will eb the third-place team in one of Groups C or D, potentially Cameroon, Guinea, Algeria, Angola or Burkina Faso. Such is their form, they might fancy themselves against any of those.

Goalkeeper Jesús Owono was named Man of the Match against Ivory Coast despite his side’s romping to victory, and praised the tactics of coach Micha.

“We had a great match tactically; we knew they were going to try to press us. We said to ourselves that if we resisted the first 15 minutes, the match would be for us,” he said.

“We had two great African teams in our group and proved that we were well prepared. We will continue to work as we have done so far to go as far as possible in the competition.”