AC Jimbo and co discuss what can be done to halt Leicester’s alarming slide. Plus: Hull’s renaissance continues against Liverpool; Romelu Lukaku puts Bournemouth to the sword; and Cameroon win the Africa Cup of NationsSubscribe and review: iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast & Stitcher. And join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterToday’s Football Weekly line-up sees AC Jimbo and Barry Glendenning join forces with the continental élan of Rafa Honigstein and Philippe Auclair, and all four serve up a 60-plus-minute dose of controversy with two fierce debates taking centre stage. Continue reading...
From the standout match, player and goal through to personal highlights, disappointments and more, here is the verdict on the contest in GabonEgypt 1-2 Cameroon The best was saved until last. This was a watchable tournament throughout but, with almost an hour of the final played, Egypt appeared to be seeing it out to a conclusion that, given some of the attacking football on view from other sides, was not necessarily the most palatable. Then came an out-of-the-blue equaliser from Nicolas Nkoulou, a whirlwind of an onslaught from Cameroon in the final 30 minutes and a goal from Vincent Aboubakar that will bear replaying over and over again. All in front of a full house, largely peopled by Cameroonian expats,...
From Mike Smith leading Egypt’s triumph to Ivory Coast’s marathon shootout win and Zambia’s emotional 2012 success, half a dozen Afcon events to savourThe Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser will never be allowed to forget his role in one of the most galling defeats in English history but, in the name of fair play, we should also recall that only a few months prior to carrying out an impromptu study of Mexican cloud patterns while Diego Maradona punched the ball past Peter Shilton, Bin Nasser presided over a glorious English success. He was the referee who kept a careful eye on the 1986 Africa Cup of Nations final, scrupulously permitting no manual skulduggery as the manager Mike Smith helped Egypt...
José Antonio Camacho had hoped his side could unite the politically-divided nation but their joyless and unimaginative football did not excite the fansAs boos rang around the rapidly emptying Stade de l’Amitié, Gabon’s left-winger Denis Bouanga wept. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, after another underwhelming display, walked straight off the pitch, head bowed, shoulders defensively hunched. A goalless draw against Cameroon put Gabon out of the Africa Cup of Nations and made them only the fourth hosts in 31 tournaments and the first since Tunisia in 1994 to fail to make it out of the group stage. Related: Hosts Gabon crash out of Africa Cup of Nations after Cameroon draw Related: Afcon 2017: how did South Africa and Nigeria, Africa's richest nations, miss...
Liverpool winger Sadio Mané gives Senegal an unpredictable edge that has helped them reach the quarter-finals in Gabon after only two matchesAs soon as Tunisia’s win over Algeria was over, the Senegal fans filed into a corner of the stadium. They had no need to wait – one ticket gets you into both parts of the double-header – but some sense of courtesy seemed to hold them back. They are, after all, by some way the noisiest fans in Group B and within seconds of turning their block of seats yellow, green and red, had set up a rhythmic drumming and whistling that they maintained until the final whistle. By then, the game had long since been won: 2-0 was...