Ivory Coast lost their second group game at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations and followed it up by losing their third, 4-0 to Equatorial Guinea. They were, by any realistic assessment, on their way out of a tournament they were hosting, especially when Ghana went 2-0 up against Mozambique, which seemed to close off the possibility of the Ivorians going through as one of the four best third-place teams.
But then Mozambique scored twice in injury-time, Ivory Coast snuck through, sacked their manager and, after equalising with an 86th-minute penalty against Senegal, and equalising in the last minute when down to 10 men against Mali, the rest was history.
