Ivory Coast brought the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations to a dramatic end on Sunday beating Nigeria 2-1 in the final to become champions for the third time.
The Elephants were the story of the competition as they sacked manager Jean-Louis Gasset after a poor group-stage performance and still went on to lift the trophy.
Here, the PA news agency looks at highlights from the latest edition.
Comeback kings Ivory Coast rise from the dead
After a shock 4-0 defeat to Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast looked certain for an early exit. The Ivorian Football Federation sacked French manager Gasset afterwards and brought in former player Emerse Fae. Having scraped through to the knockout rounds, they edged past big favourites and defending champions Senegal on penalties in the round of 16 in Fae’s first game in charge, then beat Mali in extra-time in the quarter-finals and secured a 1-0 victory over DR Congo in the last four. Given the nickname ‘Zombies’, they came back from the dead once again to beat Nigeria 2-1 in the final after going behind, proving you should never write off the Ivory Coast.
Much change needed for the Black Stars
It was a tournament to forget for Ghana as they failed to make it out of the group stages with just two draws and a defeat. A team that included West Ham star Mohammed Kudus, Crystal Palace veteran Jordan Ayew and Athletic Bilbao forward Inaki Williams struggled to help Ghana make any progress in the competition. Former Brighton manager Chris Hughton was sacked after less than 12 months in charge and the Black Stars have started their search for a new coach before the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in June.
South Africa defy the odds
Not many would have predicted South Africa would reach the semi-finals of the tournament and Bafana Bafana certainly caught the eye. Their biggest challenge came when they took on 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco in the round of 16. Goals from Evidence Makgopa and Teboho Mokoena sealed a famous 2-0 victory as PSG star Achraf Hakimi missed a penalty late on for the Moroccans.
New heights for Mauritania
Mauritania qualified for AFCON for the first time in their history in 2018 and heading into this year’s competition they had new hopes of improving on their last performance. The Lions of Chinguetti were still searching for their first win heading into the last group game against Algeria and they pulled it off with a shock 1-0 victory to also send them to their first knockout match against Cape Verde. Mauritania could not pull off another upset against Cape Verde but they sealed their place in AFCON history with an impressive performance.
Rise in viewing figures continues
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) confirmed more than two billion people worldwide watched the tournament live on TV. Deals with many broadcasters, including Sky and BBC, have helped boost figures for the competition and CAF president Patrice Motsepe predicts the next tournament’s viewing figures will be even better.
'I will keep fighting' - Ten Hag adamant he is the right manager for Man Utd
Erik ten Hag insists that he is the right man for the job at Manchester United despite their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace on Monday.
Michael Olise netted twice against a sorry United team at Selhurst Park, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also getting on the scoresheet.
It is the first time that Palace have done the double over the Red Devils in the Premier League, as United extended their winless run on the road to five games.
There has been a lot of speculation over Ten Hag’s future following a disappointing second campaign in charge, with just one year left on his contract.
Asked if he was the right manager for United, he told Sky Sports: "Absolutely. If the right players are there and available, we have a good squad, but are missing the whole backline – we had problems.
"I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far – I have to take responsibility for that. But I will find energy and prepare them for Sunday’s game.
"At the end of the day, I have to do it with the players who are available. All season, we have huge [injury] problems. Many times we have sorted it out. Today we didn’t."
United have struggled with injury problems all season, with Harry Maguire and club captain Bruno Fernandes joining the lengthy list of players missing against Palace.
Ten Hag highlighted the lack of defensive options at his disposal but did not make excuses for the poor performance, adding: "It’s clear and obvious – this is underperforming. It’s not good enough. We are very disappointed in this. Our fans were behind us all the way – we should have kept fighting like the fans did.
"There are always reasons. Everyone sees our backline, we have huge problems, but at the end of the day we have to deal with it – we should have done better than we did.
"We know [how damaging it could be], but we have nine points to play, so we have to fight for the nine points."
Man Utd thrashing a 'big statement' but Palace are not surprised, says Eze
Eberechi Eze says Crystal Palace's 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United is a "big statement" but insists there should be little surprise that it happened.
Micheal Olise scored twice as Palace ran riot against the sorry Red Devils at Selhurst Park on Monday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also got in on the act as Palace sealed their first league double over United.
Palace have now won four of their last five Premier League games, with Oliver Glasner having turned the tide in the past few weeks.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Eze said: "It says a lot, it's a big statement, but we're not surprised.
"We know what we're capable of, we know what we can do. The quality we've got in the dressing room is high – we don't see it as a surprise. We know what we came here to do today, it worked.
"You can see we’re creating chances, we're not worried about what's going on behind us. We're attacking, pressing, we're aggressive – we're going to continue to create chances for sure."
Also speaking to Sky Sports, Glasner said: "Congratulations to the team. I think in the first half, we didn't play as well as we could, but we were very efficient and scored very nice goals.
"At half-time, we made some adaptations, and the second half was much better. We created a lot of chances, scored some nice goals, and it's a great win.
"We know we have quality when we get our players in situations to score a goal.
"Good players, a good team spirit, but we must always stay humble. It's not so long ago we were struggling [in a relegation battle]. We are doing well, but we have a lot to improve."
This was Palace's biggest Premier League win since beating Leeds United 5-1 in April 2023, while it also marked their biggest on home soil in the competition since a 5-0 victory over Leicester City in April 2018.
Udinese 1-1 Napoli: Struggling Bianconeri grab last-gasp home draw
Napoli were held to a 1-1 draw at relegation-battling Udinese in Serie A on Monday after a stoppage-time goal by forward Isaac Success cancelled out a Victor Osimhen header.
Osimhen nodded home to give Napoli the lead in the 51st minute after Matteo Politano sent a lofted cross from the right into the middle of the box, and the Nigerian striker headed the ball in off the left post.
The Nigerian thought he doubled their advantage in the 80th minute, but his effort was ruled out for offside, before Success bundled in the leveller in stoppage time, netting from a Thomas Kristensen header.
Napoli moved up to eighth on 51 points from 35 games and are nine points behind both fifth-placed Atalanta and Roma, in sixth.
Data Debrief:
Osimhen is the third Napoli player to score in six matches in a row against a single team in Serie A in the three-points-for-a-win era, after Gonzalo Higuain against Lazio between 2013 and 2016 and Dries Mertens against Bologna between 2016 and 2019.
Despite fighting back to earn a point, Udinese have now failed to win three games under a new manager for the first time since August-September 2010 under Francesco Guidolin.
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