Osimhen, Ghana and the 5 biggest disappointments from the AFCON 2023 so far

The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations has thrown up a number of surprises with minnows rising up to challenge the bigger teams and AFCON regulars failing to live up to expectations. 

Amidst the Euphoria of several giant killings and unusual suspects, we look at the most disappointing big wigs from the Group Stage and how they failed to live up to expectations.

The Black Stars of Ghana came into AFCON 2023 with a lot of promise. Stars like Inaki Williams, the Ayew brothers and especially the in-form Mohammed Kudus gave Ghana hope of a deep run into the competition, but despite their best efforts, the Black Stars were dumped out in the Group Stage of AFCON for the third consecutive edition. 

Ghana finished third in Group B, behind Cape Verde and Egypt with only two points from three games. A 2-1 loss in their opening match against Cape Verde and a 2-2 draw against Mozambique in the final group game were the lowest points for the Black Stars who were seconds away from a win against the Mambas and qualification for the Round of 16 before a catastrophic error cost them two points and sent them out of the competition. 

Champions in 2019, Algeria’s golden generation were expected to go out with a bang in the 2023 AFCON, but could only muster a disappointing whimper as they were dumped out of the tournament after a shock loss to Mauritania in their last group game. 

Since winning the 2019 competition, Algeria have not won a single match, after failing to secure three points in any of their three matches in Ivory Coast. Despite being grouped alongside minnows Angola, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania, Algeria somehow managed to be the only team from Group D that failed to make the second round. 

Amongst the let downs for Algeria, the symbol of their golden generation, Riyad Mahrez was one of the most disappointing, failing to help the Fennecs and even getting relegated to bench for the last match of the group stage which they lost. 

Hosts Ivory Coast were expected to dominate Group A and were even tipped to be one of the teams with a perfect record going into the knock out stage, but after a win in their opening match against Guinea Bissau, the Elephants collapsed to a third place finish behind Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria. 

After two losses to Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea who secured a 4-0 win over the hosts, Ivory Coast were left at the mercy of other third-placed teams and only snuck into the round of 16 thanks to Zambia and Ghana, who could only muster two points each. 

Facing defending champions Senegal in the next round, Ivory Coast will hope to put the disappointing group stage performance behind them and mount a better challenge for the title in the knockout stages. 

Current African Player of the Year Victor Osimhen was touted as one of the top players to watch out for in the 2023 AFCON but his group stage performances have left much to be desired from the Napoli striker. 

Despite featuring in all three group stage matches, Osimhen, who was a shoo in for the Golden Boot come before the start of the tournament, has only scored one goal, while struggling to put away chances that are his bread and butter at club level. 

Osimhen tops the list of players with the most big chances missed at AFCON 2023 having fluffed as many as five clear cut chances, but has the luxury of playing in the knockout rounds to impress his teeming fans and put the disappointing group stage behind him. 

Another of Africa’s giants who were utterly disgraced in the Group stage, Tunisia’s performance at the 2023 AFCON was one of the worst on record as they failed to take a win from a group that included Mai South Africa, and Namibia. 

The Carthage Eagles lost their opening AFCON 2023 match to Namibia and ever recovered, only managing to claim two points from draws against South Africa and Mali in their final two matches of the group stage to leave them bottom of Group E.