ABU DHABI, January 21 / WAM / The curtain came down yesterday evening on the group stage of the 33rd African Cup of Nations, which is currently being held in Cameroon during the period from January 9 to February 3, with the participation of 24 teams, including 7 Arab teams, out of 9 who participated in the qualifiers. eligible.
In the following report, the Emirates News Agency / WAM / monitors the most prominent numbers and statistics of the first phase of the continental championship, which was held this year instead of its date last year due to the precautionary measures once morest the Corona virus.
The group stage of the continental championship witnessed many surprises, most notably the exit of the Algerian team, the holder of the title of the last edition, while Ghana also exited the tournament from the group stage for the first time in 16 years.
Twelve teams qualified for the round of sixteen following occupying the first and second places, while 4 teams qualified as the third best in the standings. Among the qualifiers were 4 Arab teams, Morocco, Egypt, Comoros and Tunisia.
In the details, within the first group, Cameroon qualified 7 points, Burkina Faso 4 points, Cape Verde 4 points.. From the second, Senegal 5 points, Guinea 4 points, Malawi 4 points.. From the third, Morocco qualified 7 points, Gabon 5, and Comoros 3 points.
From the fourth, Nigeria qualified with 9 points and Egypt with 6 points. From the fifth, the Ivory Coast 7 and Equatorial Guinea qualified with 6 points. From the sixth, Mali qualified with 7 points, Gambia with 7 points and Tunisia with 3 points.
The group stage witnessed 36 matches, during which he scored 68 goals, and the Arab teams managed to score 16 goals, while conceding 25 goals.
Among the most remarkable surprises, the teams of Equatorial Guinea, Gambia and Comoros qualified for the playoffs.
The Arab teams played 21 matches, winning only 6 of them. Cameroon scored the most goals with 7 goals, and Morocco among the Arabs 5 goals.
And Mauritania became the only team that left the competition without winning or scoring goals and conceded 7 goals, along with Guinea Bissau, who was unable to score, following losing two matches and a goalless draw in one match. Nigeria was the only team that won its three matches, and Senegal The only one who did not conceded any goals, with two negative draws, and one win.
The first round scored the least goals for all teams, with 12 goals, including one for the Arab teams.. In the second round, 29 goals were scored, including 8 for the Arab teams.
In the third round, he scored 27 goals, including 7 for the Arab teams.. All matches of the stage witnessed 132 yellow cards and 6 red cards.. 16 penalty kicks were scored, 10 of which were scored and 6 of them wasted, and the Arab teams were the most wasted by 5 kicks. Penalty, 3 of which were missed by Tunisia alone, and one by Morocco and Algeria, while Morocco and Sudan scored two penalties.
And he scored a single goal by Gabon’s player Nayef Akrad once morest his country’s national team for Morocco.
Cameroonian player Vincent Abubakar topped the scorer list with 5 goals, followed by Ibrahima Kone, Malian player with 3 goals.
Commenting on the performance of the Arab teams in the group stage, sports analyst Mansour Abdullah, a member of the Statistics Committee of the Emirates Football Association, said that the performance of the Arab teams in the group stage was not at the level of ambition, and witnessed many surprises, most notably the exit of the defending Algeria team, where he expected him to compete once Another win for the cup, especially following his recent performance in the Arab Cup and winning the title, but what happened was contrary to all expectations.
It was also remarkable the number of wins for Arab teams, which were in only 6 matches out of 21 matches, which is a very modest number for teams that have many stars and professionals in European competitions such as Egypt and Algeria.
Sports analyst Mansour Abdullah confirms that the round of 16 will be more difficult than the first round for all the qualified Arab teams, except for Morocco, which may have an easier chance of crossing and completing the journey, when it faces Malawi, pointing out that the Egyptian team throughout the history of its participation in the tournament chooses the most difficult path in order to reach the The final rounds, where he faces Côte d’Ivoire, a meeting that will not be easy, as well as the Tunisian team, which will have a difficult task once morest Nigeria, which has not received any loss so far, and for Comoros, it will also have a difficult task once morest Cameroon.
For his part, sports analyst Mohamed Matar Ghorab said that the African nations revealed unexpected levels for the Arab teams, despite their recent brilliance in the Arab Cup, and most of them participated in the reserve teams, but what happened was contrary to expectations, especially for large teams such as Algeria at the level of results and performance, and Egypt at the level the performance.
He added, “The stage of the round of sixteen and the knockout stage is very different from the groups, and I expect it to be more friendly and exciting, especially since it will have a great role for the coaches’ experience alongside the players, of course.”
