For once in what is shaping up to be perhaps the most exciting and eventful Afcon ever, tonight served fans of the African footballing showpiece a largely soporific clash in Group E as both South Africa and Tunisia looked more interested in keeping each other at arms’ length than in taking the game to the opposite team’s penalty area to win the match.
Only in the final stages of the game did both teams appear to be searching for gaps and scoring chances. A 0-0 draw is thus the logical conclusion for such a contest in opposition management, and this only benefited the South Africans who were already through to the knockout stages with 4 points collected before this evening’s game.
By contrast — and this was certainly the ventful detail from the game — the goalless draw means favorites Tunisia is the latest continental giant whose underwhelming and dispiring performances throughout this tournament have been punished with an embarrassing early exit.
Tellingly, so critical was tonight’s game for Tunisia’s better-looking and higher-ranked team of word-class stars that Opta, the famous score-predicting website, backed the Carthage Eagles to get the better of South Africa’s Bafana in this must-win encounter for the Tunisian’s AFCON aspirations.
“Although Tunisia has disappointed in this tournament, the OPTA supercomputer makes them favorites for this game after winning 47.8% of the pre-match simulations,” the website said.
Coming on the back of an embarrassing and shocking 2-1 loss in their opening game and a much more coherent — yet ultimately insufficient — 1-1 display against Mali in their second group game, Tunisia needed a win to avoid the disgraceful fate of favorites who have been stunned by a group stage exit.
Yet while they appeared to dominate possession, Tunisians proved ineffective and anticlimactic as they missed a decent number of scoring opportunities.
While the 2004 African champions and much-storied Tunisia is now heading home having only mustered 2 points in its 3 group games, Mali (5 points), South-Africa (5 points), and Namia (4 points) are set to advance to the knockout stages.
A few years ago, tonight’s results would have seemed out of place, unbelievable.
But as this Afcon continues to defy odds and unmake long-standing myths in African football, it is increasingly appearing that, as Mohamed Salah unwittingly admitted in a recent interview when asked about Egypt’s chances of winning, talks of favorites and “small teams” are now irrelevant in Africa’s democratizing footballing landscape.
