ABIJAN, Jan. 18 – Veteran Emilio Lopez Nsue netted a hat-trick to help Equatorial Guinea stop Guinea Bissau 4-2 to go top of Group A at the ongoing TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2023 in Ivory Coast.
After hodling Nigeria to a 1-1 in their opening match, Equatorial Guinea were in good scoring form in their second match played at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan on Thursday.
The 34-year old Nsue put Equatorial Guinea ahead after 21 minutes, but an own goal by Esteban Orozco Fernandez made it 1-1 sixteen minutes later.
With the Nzalang Nacional dominating most of the play they netted made it 2-1 with Josete Miranda scoring after 46 minutes. The red hot goal hungry Nsue increased Equatorial Guinea’s tally with two more goals after 51 and 61 minutes respectively.
But as the match was fans waited for the final whistle Guinea Bissau pulled a goal back through Jose Correia with three minutes of added time on the clock.
Later tonight hosts Ivory Coast will face Nigeria in another Group A match that promises to be a thriller.
Group A standing
P W D L GF GA GD Pts
E. Guinea 2 1 1 0 5 3 2 4
Ivory Coast 1 1 0 0 2 0 2 3
Nigeria 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1
G. Bissau 1 0 0 2 2 6 -4 0
