At 03:00 Beijing time on January 17, the second round of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations Group E, the defending champion Algeria played against Equatorial Guinea. In the first half, Buneja's goal was blown away; in the second half, Esteban broke the deadlock and Bellerin's goal was invalid. In the end, Algeria lost 0-1 to Equatorial Guinea, suffering a two-round winless start.
In the 22nd minute, Buneja scored in front of goal, but the goal was invalidated due to offside! Algeria has missed an opportunity to break the deadlock!
In the 70th minute, Equatorial Guinea fired a corner kick from the left, Joset Miranda hit his heel in front of the point and Esteban shoveled it into the net at the back post! Equatorial Guinea leads 1-0!
In the 83rd minute, Bellelli received a long pass to burst through the goal! But offside when the ball was received, Algeria's second goal was also blown off!
In the end, Algeria lost 0-1 to Equatorial Guinea. As a result, Algeria's 35-game unbeaten record was tragically ended, and it fell to the bottom of the group. In the final round, they will fight a life-and-death battle with another championship-winning favourite, Côte d'Ivoire, and only by winning can they hope to advance directly, and if they lose, they will be directly eliminated.
Equatorial Guinea, which won the upset, rushed straight from the bottom 1 directly into the promotion zone. After the game, the world-ranked 114th-ranked fish belly team celebrated like a championship. As a small African country with a population of only 1.46 million, this is the third time in the history of Equatorial Guinea to qualify for the African Cup of Nations and the first time to reach the final round of the African Cup of Nations as a non-host. As a result, it was also the first time in the 46 years since they officially established the national team that they had won an Africa Cup of Nations competition outside their home country.
It is worth mentioning that the opponent of the first match in the history of the Equatorial Guinea national team is the Chinese team. At that time, the national football team won 6-2.