Ivory Coast 1-0 South Africa
It’s first blood to the Ivory Coast at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
A second-half winner from Aston Villa striker Jonathan Kodjia was enough to give the 2015 champions an opening win and back up my SBOBET prediction.
It was also the Ivorians’ first-ever victory over Bafana Bafana – and they deserved it, too, as they made Africa Cup of Nations 2019 highlights in their opening Group D encounter in the Al Salam Stadium in Cairo.
Highlights of the game
The African Cup of Nations 2019 betting odds favoured the Ivory Coast, and they were good value for their win against limited opponents, who failed to muster a single effort on target.
Even before Kodjia’s strike, the Elephants had the upper hand in the match.
In temperatures nearing 40 degrees, both sets of supporters were here to enjoy themselves, and the Vuvuzela chorus was a timely reminder that South Africa were playing.
It always evokes memories of the 2010 World Cup for a generation.
There was little fluency from either side, in truth. The first real opportunity took 25 minutes to materialise as Lebo Mothiba delivered a corner, but Thulani Hlatshwayo headed just wide.
The much-needed drinks break seemed to prompt an upturn in quality. Moments after play resumed, Lille’s winger Nicolas Pepe – supposedly on Bayern Munich’s radar after scoring 23 goals in Ligue 1 last season – hit the angle of bar and post with a whipped-in free kick.
Kodjia then burst through after a header from Ismael Traore but shot straight at goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.
Pepe was clearly a class above but arguably the other main talking point of a tepid first period was when Spurs full-back Serge Aurier – later named man of the match – was asked to leave the field because his shin socks were not correctly tethered in.
Despite being pushed back, South Africa held firm past the hour mark and were a threat at rare set-pieces.
Then Kodjia pounced after good work by Gradel and Wonlo Coulibaly.
The introduction of Wilfried Zaha, one of the obvious ones to watch in this tournament, was a further boon for the Ivorians. Although, disaster nearly struck when goalkeeper Sylvain Gbohouo dropped the ball. But he was able to gather and drop to the floor before a South Africa player could pounce.
There has been much talk about the use of VAR in tournaments this summer, but the absence of it from this game — VAR does not come into use until the quarter-finals — proved costly for South Africa five minutes from time.
They probably should have had a penalty as substitute Lars Veldwijk was bundled over by a challenge from Thamsanqa Mkhize.
In the closing stages, Ivory Coast went close to doubling their lead as Pepe produced another moment of class with a free kick which was heading in until Williams made a flying fingertip save.
The overall verdict after this 90 minutes is the Ivory Coast are a good outside bet for the tournament.
South Africa in the AFCON will always bring back fond memories of 1996 but their class of 2019 looks a long way off.
Key statistics
Ivory Coast have only lost one of their last 18 opening games at the Africa Cup of Nations (won 11, drawn six). That was in 1996 against Ghana (0-2).
South Africa have lost three of their last four group-stage games at the AFCON (drawn one).
After this defeat, they have won only one of their last 15 games in the competition (drawn seven, lost eight). That was against Angola on home soil in January 2013 (2-0).
Gradel has delivered the assist for two of Ivory Coast’s last three goals at the tournament.
South Africa have conceded their last nine AFCON goals in the second half.
What’s next?
Ibrahim Kamara’s side take on Morocco in their next Group D game on Friday (18:00 BST).
That should be a mouth-watering clash with Morocco tactician Herve Renard coming up against the side he led to the title in 2015.
South Africa face Namibia later that day (21:00 BST).
Cote d’Ivoire now move joint top of the group with Morocco, who won 1-0 yesterday against Namibia.
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