Sacked a manager, beat the entire continent. It would make a redemption story improbable enough to make the Mighty Ducks, the Karate Kid or even Rocky blush, but it’s what Ivory Coast are facing the prospect of at the Africa Cup of Nations.
The hosts of this year’s tournament were within a whisker of being knocked out embarassingly early on home soil, but a brave decision looks to have become an inspired one, with the Elephants now just 90 minutes away from their first Afcon final in almost a decade.
This, after being only injury time away from an ignominious exit. From the group stage, the top two go through – and so do four of the six third-placed teams. In other words, only the worst eight nations from the starting 24 fail to make the knockouts at the Afcon, and Ivory Coast put themselves firmly on course to be in that collection after a win and two defeats.
They were fifth-best of the six third-placed teams, right up until the 90th minute of Ghana’s game with Mozambique. At the time, Ghana led 2-0 and were going through; fast forward four minutes of stoppage time and Mozambique had scored twice, Ghana went out instead and – coupled with Zambia losing to Morocco – Ivory Coast were given a reprieve.