It was a tournament that hardly pulled up enough surprises. The Egyptians confirmed that they are undoubtedly the strongest team in Africa. Their third consecutive clear victory only underscored the tragedy of their non qualification for SA 2010.
Quite sadly, none of the African World Cup qualifiers seem likely to do as much justice to their place as Egypt would have done.
Cote D'ivoire.
In their highly rated clash against Ghana, the Ivoriens were pitting their offensive power against Ghana's defensive depth. It was attack versus defense. This time, attack won, probably because of the experience advantage of Drogba and Co.
However, as was exposed during the previous CAN, Cote d'ivoire have a fragile defence despite the presence of Kolo Toure and Eboue, and it took professional giant killers Algeria to bring this point home again. In what may have been the match of the tournament, Algeria scored three times, their highest goals tally in the competition, to confirm the Ivoriens as perpetual underachievers in the African Cup of Nations.
While they were hard done in the denial of Toure's goal, they had NO BUSINESS conceeding 3 goals, and this defensive fragility may once again deny them going past the first round in South Africa.
Nigeria
Their first match with Egypt showed that the Nigerians were clearly not the best on the African Continent. Though they scored the first goal, a masterpiece, the second half showed that the Egyptians were the classier act.
As has been the case with the Super Eagles for some time now, they were able to somehow triumph over weaker opposition but came unstuck whenever they played against Africa's true giants. Nigeria were eliminated by a young Ghanian team, once again in the semi's.
Algeria
The Algerians were the most inconsistent of the rated teams. They started their campaign with a shocking 0-3 loss to no hopers Malawi, only for them to beat the Malians 1-0 and then hold the angolans to a draw. They then put the book makers out of business with a 3-2 win that was probably the match of the tournament.
Two subsequent losses to Egypt and Nigeria guaranteed them an undeserved 4th place despite the victory over the Ivoriens.
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