0:2! Lose and lose! The number one favorite to win the championship was upset and stopped in the round of 16 and missed the promotion
Time flies, and at the last moment, we seem to be still immersed in the joy of bidding farewell to 2023 and ushering in 2024, and now, the first month of 2024 has entered the final countdown stage. And for the majority of football lovers, January is enough to make people look forward to the whole year
This year is undoubtedly a big year for football, in addition to the always exciting European club competitions, international competitions are more lively, the European Cup, Copa America, Africa Cup of Nations, Asian Cup of Nations will be staged in turn, and now the Asian Cup and Africa Cup of Nations are in full swing. Every time there is a big competition, there will be some upsets in the group stage, and this year is no exception, such as South Korea, Japan, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Tunisia and other teams, all of which have been blocked in the group stage
However, after entering the knockout round, a number of Asia's big teams and championship favorites have gradually found their form and made steady progress. The South Korean team, which won only one of the three games in the group stage of the Asian Cup, defeated the strong rival Saudi Arabia in the 1/8 finals after a penalty shootout and advanced to the quarterfinals. Ivory Coast, which failed to win a game in the group stage of the Africa Cup of Nations, defeated defending champion Senegal in the 1/8 finals and also advanced to the next round. Of course, there are good and bad news, with some favourites gradually finding their form and others hastily ending their title journey
At 4 a.m. on January 31, Beijing time, the last 1/8 final of this Africa Cup of Nations started as scheduled, against the "Atlas Lions" Moroccan team and the "Diamond Team" South African team. The former is currently the highest-ranked African team in the world and the top favourites to win the Cup, while South Africa stumbled in the group stage and did not have an advantage. However, Morocco's performance surprised the outside world with such a clear gap, South Africa beat Morocco 2-0 in the second half thanks to goals from Makgopa and Tebore Mokona, and Morocco had to stop at the last 16
Throughout this game, Morocco had the advantage in a number of technical statistics, especially the number of shots on goal with a 13-5 lead, but in terms of efficiency, Morocco's 13 shots and 2 on target data were far inferior to South Africa's 5 shots and 3 goals and 2 goals. And in the game, Morocco's number one star Achraf missed a key penalty that could help the team equalize, and Amrabat was also sent off in the last minute of the game for a violent foul during the defense, which made Morocco, the number one favorite in the world ranked 13th and advancing to the semifinals of the 22 World Cup, simply "lose and lose"
Morocco, with stars such as Achraf, Mazraoui, Ziyech, Adli, En-Nesyri, Aguerd, Amrabat, Bounou, etc., was out of the 1/8 finals. At this point, none of the top five teams in Africa's current FIFA rankings have missed the quarterfinals, and none of the five teams representing Africa in the 2022 Qatar World Cup have also missed the quarterfinals. Of the remaining eight teams, Nigeria are ranked 42nd in the world and have won the most Africa Cup of Nations titles of any remaining team (three), so it remains to be seen who will win the title