Former Crystal Palace and Manchester United winger Wilfried Zaha joins Lyon on a season-long loan from Galatasaray.

Emerse Fae appointed Ivory Coast coach on a permanent deal after leading the Elephants to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations title.

Thousands of jubilant Ivory Coast supporters took to Abidjan’s city streets on Monday to celebrate the country’s Africa Cup of Nations victory. Fans blew whistles, sung and chanted as they waited to see the team pass through the city. The Elephants defeated Nigeria 2-1 in Sunday’s Afcon final to claim the country’s third title after wins in 1992 and 2015. It set off unbridled celebrations that lasted through the night in Abidjan and beyond. Haller the hero as Ivory Coast seal improbable Afcon win against Nigeria Continue reading...

After suffering the biggest tournament defeat since Brazil at the 2014 World Cup and sacking their coach mid-stream, the hosts lifted the trophy on SundaySign up to Jonathan’s weekly newsletter here It was the biggest defeat a tournament host of the Africa Cup of Nations had ever suffered. Ivory Coast fell apart utterly in the second half of their final group game against Equatorial Guinea. If they’d retained a sense of perspective, they’d have realised that even a one- or two-goal defeat was likely to be enough to see them through, but their heads were gone and Emilio Nsue kept scoring the same goal. It finished 4-0, the largest defeat for any major tournament host since Brazil’s 7-1 capitulation against Germany in the 2014 World Cup semi-final, and that made progress improbable. The past three weeks have been the story of what followed. There was some low-key rioting, with cars and shops burned out. Ivory Coast’s 70-year-old French coach Jean-Louis Gasset was sacked. On his 40th birthday, the former Reading midfielder Emerse Faé was appointed, having never been a head coach before. He had no idea whether he’d have any matches to take charge of. But Ghana conceded twice in injury-time against Mozambique, Zambia lost to Morocco and Ivory Coast made it to the last 16 not so much through the back door, as up the tree and through the bathroom window. Continue reading...

Ivory Coast's interim head coach, Emerse Faé, called the win over Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations final 'more than a fairytale' admitting 'frankly, I still can't believe we've done it'. Nigeria's captain, William Troost-Ekong, scored in the 38th minute against the run of play with a header from a corner but the Super Eagles were outplayed in the first half and only threatened again after Sébastien Haller scored his second goal of the tournament. Nigeria's head coach, José Peseiro, praised his team for 'a fantastic tournament' but admitted that in this game 'Côte d'Ivoire was better'. Haller the hero as Ivory Coast seal improbable Afcon win against Nigeria Continue reading...

Minute-by-minute report of the 8pm GMT kick-off in AbidjanDR Congo squad protest for peace in their country Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Africa Cup of Nations final between Nigeria and Ivory Coast in Abidjan. Twenty-five days ago, in the 87th minute of his side’s final group game, Zambia’s Barbra Banda whistled a rising drive from 25 yards that was dramatically tipped over the bar by the Morocco keeper Bono. Had it gone in, Zambia would have qualified as one of the best third-placed teams and the hosts Ivory Coast – who had already sacked their manager Jean-Louis Gasset – would have gone out in disgrace. Instead they sneaked through to the knockout stages, where they dodged several bullets against Senegal and Mali before beating DR Congo in the semi-finals. Now they, and their caretaker manager Emerse Fae, are one game away from a peculiarly glorious triumph. Continue reading...

With Cape Verde, Angola, Mauritania and Equatorial Guinea all making an impression, this Cup of Nations is full of positives And so, after a tournament of shocks, the final of the Africa Cup of Nations will be a meeting of the 2015 and 2013 winners, Ivory Coast against Nigeria. But if the finalists feel familiar, the tournament has not. Tournaments often pursue their own logic but, developing certain themes from the last edition in Cameroon, this Cup of Nations has felt like significant progress. For Ivory Coast, the mood has changed radically over the past two weeks. After the anger of the group stage, which led to cars being burned out after the 4-0 defeat to Equatorial Guinea seemed to have eliminated them, Ivory Coast have ridden a wave of disbelieving euphoria. They made it past Senegal, despite being 1-0 down after 86 minutes; Mali, again trailing 1-0 and down to 10 men after 90 minutes; and then, more comfortably, DR Congo, 1-0 in the semi-final. With Sébastien Haller and Simon Adingra returning to fitness, the sense of miracles has waned and the hosts now look the very good team they were expected to be before the start of the tournament. Continue reading...

Kolo Toure says Ivory Coast will have a massive party if the Elephants beat Nigeria in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations final.

Some countries plan for tournaments for years, work on plans and development and DNA, meticulously lay out their blueprint for success. And some just wing it, finding amid the chaos a sense of purpose and momentum that, being unexpected, somehow makes them all the more potent. Ivory Coast have looked out of this tournament on at least three occasions and replaced their coach but they will face Nigeria in Sunday’s final. Nobody could say they dominated but, after an edgy start, it was probably Ivory Coast’s most impressive display of the tournament so far as the Saudi-based pair of Franck Kessié and Seko Fofana gave them control of midfield in the second half and their first 90-minute win of the knockout phase. Sébastien Haller, making his first start of the tournament, got the only goal after 65 minutes which, by recent Ivorian standards, felt almost like scoring in the prelude. Continue reading...

Minute-by-minute report as Afcon hosts bid to reach the finalGet in touch! Email Michael or tweet him @michaelbutler18 “After all that we endured, we are no longer afraid of anything”. What a sublime, ridiculous tournament this has been and no team has embodied the wild energy of this Afcon more than the hosts, Ivory Coast. It was Elephants midfielder Seko Fofana with the above quote in the lead up to this semi-final with DR Congo and there is a sense of destiny for the home nation to reach the final, such are the obstacles that Ivory Coast have overcome to reach the final four. Continue reading...

The best finishes for interim coaches, big defeats for hosts, a lack of FA Cup minnows and Scott Dann comes goodMail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU “Afcon hosts Ivory Coast sacked coach Jean-Louis Gasset after a desultory group-stage performance, but it was later confirmed they had qualified for the last 16. Has a coach ever been sacked during an international tournament before? And if so, what is the best finish for a coach (or caretaker) appointed mid-tournament?” asks Grant Ninnes. Gasset isn’t the first coach to get his cards in the middle of a tournament, though most of his predecessors were sacked after two group games and with their team in the departure lounge. Two such examples came at the 1998 World Cup. Tunisia got rid of Henryk Kasperczak after the shame of losing against England and Colombia in their first two group games, even though both were reasonably tight. Ali Selmi took over for the last match against Romania’s new blond army, earning an impressive 1-1 draw. 2020 Russia 0-3 Belgium, Hungary 0-3 Portugal (both group stage) 2023 Ivory Coast 0-4 Equatorial Guinea, group stage 1959 Ecuador 0-4 Uruguay, round robin 2016 USA 0-4 Argentina, semi-final 1997 Saudi Arabia 0-5 Mexico, group stage 2001 South Korea 0-5 France, group stage 2009 USA 0-5 Mexico, final 1947 Ecuador 1-6 Uruguay, round robin 1971 Trinidad & Tobago 0-6 Haiti, round robin 1980 New Caledonia 0-8 Australia, group stage 1947 One team (Port Vale) 1983 Two teams (Swindon, Torquay) Continue reading...

How often can a side flirt with elimination before they finally go out? Ivory Coast had played the entirety of the second half with 10 men, were 1-0 down and seemingly on their way out when, in the final minute of normal time, the substitute Simon Adingra darted in from the right flank, squared for Seko Fofana and then, after inadvertently blocking his teammate’s shot, reacted quickest to stab in the loose ball. Another great escape for the hosts, and the prelude to a last-gasp extra-time victory. It may not make much rational sense, but Ivory Coast are in the semi-final, where they will face Democratic Republic of the Congo. If any side can stop them, they will have had to overcome not just a fine squad and the passionate home support, but also a sense of narrative momentum that, at the moment, feels unstoppable. Continue reading...

Despite bizarre decisions on and off the pitch somehow the hosts are in the quarter-finals and anything can happen now The fact that Ivory Coast hired a septuagenarian French coach – Jean-Louis Gasset – with no experience in African football before the Afcon, only to sack him after their miserable performance in the group stages and replace him with former international player but novice manager Emerse Faé for their last-16 game against Senegal speaks to the cocktail of incompetence and chaos that is Ivorian football. And not even Monday’s pulsating, national morale-boosting penalty-shootout win over Senegal, which sent the streets of Yamoussoukro into a frenzy of jubilation into the early hours of Tuesday, can mask this fact. Managing the Elephants was an unexpected 40th birthday gift for Faé, given to him by FIF, the Ivorian football federation, on 24 January, leaving him with just five days of international management experience before a high-pressure knockout game against the defending Afcon champions. Continue reading...

A week ago, Ivory Coast were on the end of a 4-0 battering from Equatorial Guinea. Now they are in the last eight of the Africa Cup of Nations having eliminated the champions. They are a team that has repeatedly seemed dead and buried since the tournament began – never more so than when a goal behind with four minutes remaining on Monday – and yet somehow Sébastien Haller’s zombie army marches on to a quarter-final against Mali or Burkina Faso. Senegal, having been the best side in the group stage, had seemed in control until the introduction of Haller in the 72nd minute. This had seemed like a classic case of scoring an early goal and then holding the opponent at arm’s length to see the game out. It was not, and so the curse goes on: no defending champion has made it to the quarter-finals of the Cup of Nations since Egypt in 2010. Continue reading...