AFCON 2021 day ten: Black Stars don't shine

"Something happened on the day he died / Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside / somebody else took his place, and bravely cried, 'I'm a blackstar, I'm a blackstar'..." These lyrics come from David Bowie's final album Blackstar. The artist was aware of his impending death and he wrote this dark masterpiece in which he was dealing with his own mortality and the battle against time that we're all set to lose.

AFCON 2021: Brave Warriors go down fighting against Guinea

AFCON 2021: Panthers lead twice but Morocco find their killer instinct to top group C

AFCON 2021: Historic victory for the Comoros, disappointing Ghana are headed home

AFCON 2021: Senegal book last 16 place despite lackluster draw against Malawi

Well, watching the Black Stars of Ghana in this AFCON was enough to make you think about some dark stuff indeed. The Black Stars are out of the tournament. They embarrassed themselves and made us, who considered them one of the contenders, look like idiots. Thanks a lot, guys. We really should have known - Black Stars don't shine.

Goal of the day - Naby Keita

Guinea managed to lose to bottom-placed Zimbabwe and still qualify. The moment of the match, without a shadow of a doubt was Naby Keita's goal to reduce the deficit. The Liverpool midfielder hit an unstoppable rocket with his left foot that flew into the far corner of Talbert Shumba's net. It's a memorable strike in a game that the National Elephants would prefer to forget.

Loser of the day - Milovan Rajevac

The Serbian coach returned to the Black Stars bench 11 years after leading them to the 2010 World Cup quarter-finals. He was welcomed as a divinity in Accra, but his AFCON campaign ended miserably with Ghana falling to two defeats in three group games. For all the quality of the players at his disposal, the former Algeria, Thailand and Qatar coach failed to reproduce his glory days with one of the continent's most talented squads. This was also the first time Ghana haven't won a match in the final tournament. Shambles.

Heroes of the day - The entire team and the people of Comoros

Everyone has their battle and their own struggles to overcome. In football, not all teams have the same goals. While there are teams to whom anything but winning trophies is considered a failure, there are those who fight the never-ending fight to overcome their own limits. And for that, you have to congratulate the whole Comoros team. In their first-ever AFCON appearance, they lost their first two games and were eliminated without scoring a goal. In the final match they faced favourites Ghana who needed a win badly. But it's the Coelacanths who got their first goal and their first win - a 3-2 beauty against the Black Stars. Mohamed El Fardou Ben Nabouhane got the first goal and the Man of the Match award, but it's the whole country that will remember this night forever.

Stat of the day - One goal, top spot

Senegal finished top of their group, which isn't much of a surprise. After all, they are one of the AFCON favourites. But it's their number of goals that's a bit bemusing. After a 1-0 win and two goalless draw, the Lions of Teranga proved just how essential it is to have a tight defence at tournaments like this. Their three clean sheets enabled them to put five points on the board despite only scoring once - from the penalty spot.