Gradel secures the victory for Ivory Coast

defeats

on the day that they didn’t show an impressive performance, and they won the game with

goal in the fifth minute of the game, and the Elephants didn’t do anything else in that game.

In the

Elephants

’ opening match in the Africa Cup of Nations, which was their second AFCON clash against Equatorial Guinea, their experienced star Max Gradel turned their first scoring opportunity into their winning goal by sending the ball to the top-right corner and secured the victory for his side in Douala.

Although Ivory Coast didn’t show a good performance, their opposition Equatorial Guinea must be proud of themselves, because the only thing that decided the winner of that game was an early goal from an experienced star in a team full of high-profile players, which shows the difference between these two teams.

Equatorial Guinea's best scoring opportunity was wasted by

Emilio Nsue

, who aimed for the center of the goal, and Ivory Coast goalkeeper

Badra Ali Sangare

managed to save the ball, but the situation wasn’t so different for the Elephants too as they had no shots on target other than their goal until

shot in 81st minute of the game.

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