AFCON 2023: Nsue's historic hattrick sees Equatorial Guinea take command of Group A

Emilio Nsue made history in the Africa Cup of Nations Thursday as he scored the edition’s first hat-trick in Equatorial Guinea’s 4-2 thrashing of Guinea Bissau in the second of Group A matches played at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Ivory Coast.

It was not only history for Nsue in this edition, but the former Birmingham City player became the first player to score a hattrick in the AFCON since 2008, breaking the 15 year duck following Soufiane Alloudi’s exploits for Morocco against Namibia.

With that, the 34 year old also joined a studded list of players to have accomplished the feat including among others; Samuel Etoo, Patrick Mboma, Kalusha Bwalya and Benny McCarthy.

His final strike was a beautiful one - as were his two others - as he bend his run to perfection, latching on to José Machín’s pass, before rounding past a troubled Ouparine Djoco in goal to apply a left footed finish into an empty net.

With the choreographed celebrations coming after a quick VAR check for offside that confirmed the inch-perfect run, Equatorial Guinea were well on their way to a first victory in the 2023 AFCON, and one that not only extended their unbeaten status in the group stages to four matches, but one that saw them take command of Group A, with qualification to the knock-outs all of a sudden looking achievable.

Match Report

From the look of the first 10 minutes of the contest, it was highly likely that the contest was turning out to being a similar state of the fanfare at the stadium; dull - owing to the empty seats on view - but an early attempt by Josete Miranda to test Djoco after 14 minutes, meant that there was at least a spectacle to ensue.

Note the last word there.

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Nsue (without an e at the front) would break the deadlock shortly after 21 minutes when he skipped past a hapless Sori Mane to slot his shot past Djoco, with the latter stretching out a boot that meant the goal came off him from the beginning (a goal kick) to the ball being reproduced to Pablo Ganet who fed the 34 year old for the finish.

Before that, Miranda had grazed the opposing crossbar from the left in the 26th minute.

Guinea Bissau, losers of the first game to Ivory Coast, however crawled back into the contest and earned themselves a goal when Equatorial Guinea center back Orozco Fernández turned a Mauro Rodrigues cross into his own net, making it 1-1.

1-1 soon looked nailed on to become 1-2 to Guinea Bissau when the center referee pointed to the spot for a late Saúl Coco lunge on Franculino Djú inside the box but a lengthy VAR check confirmed that the former had taken a touch on the ball first.

Two minutes after the break, a long goal kick from Jesús Owono provided the second goal for Equatorial Guinea as Miranda capitalized a Mane miss on a header to do the easy job of hammering his shot past Djoco.

Nsue would notch his 17th international goal after the hour mark when he was at the end of a Basilio Ndong cross from the left to slide in the game’s fourth goal, and one that Djoco would be annoyed to look at afterwards - his idea to commit saw him miss the ball.

The third goal, for Nsue, who’s team was having a field day was a thing of beauty, and even a late finish by Pari NN forward Zé Turbo for Guinea Bissau’s consolation wasn’t enough to scare Juan Micha’s men, who for this day, won the battle of the Guineas (this was the first time one of the three Guineas faced off in an AFCON match).

AFCON 2023- GROUP STAGE

Saturday

Ivory Coast - Guinea B. 2-0 (1-0)

/Fofana 4, Krasso 58/

Sunday

Nigeria - Equatorial Guinea 1-1 (1-1)

/Osimhen 38 - Salvador 36/

Egypt - Mozambique 2-2 (1-0)

/Mohamed 2, Salah 90+7 pen - Witi 55, Bauque 58/

Ghana - Cape Verde 1-2 (0-1)

/Djiku 56 - Monteiro 17, Rodrigues 90+2/

Monday

Senegal 3-0 Gambia (1-0)

/Gueye 4, Camara 52, 86/

Cameroon 1-1 Guinea (0-1)

/Magri 51-Bayo 10/

Algeria - Angola 1-1 (1-0)

/Boundedjah 18 - Mabululu (p) 68/

Tuesday

Burkina Faso - Mauritania 1-0 (0-0)

/Traore 90+5/

Tunisia - Namibia 0-1 (0-0)

/Hotto 88/

Mali - S.Africa 2-0 (0-0)

/Traore 60, Sinayoko 66/

Wednesday

Morocco - Tanzania 3-0 (1-0)

/Saiss 30, Ounahi 77, En Nesyri 80/

Zambia - DR Congo 1-1 (1-1)

/Kangwa 23 - Wissa 27/

Thursday

Equatorial Guinea - Guinea Bissau 4-1 (1-1)

/Nsue 21, 51, 61, Miranda 46 - Orozco OG 37, Ze Turbo 90+3/

***odds are subject to change***