Gabon somehow managed to leave it later than the Equatoguineans 93rd minute winner by scoring theirs against Morocco in the 97th minute. Their last match in the group against Tunisia will simply decide which side wins the group and avoids Ghana (likely winners of Group D).

On Wednesday evening the Nzalang Nacional (National Lightening) Equatorial Guinea faced off against one of the favourites to win the AFCON Senegal. Despite their opening day win against Libya very few people gave the Equatoguineans any sort of hope against Senegal. After all, the Senegalese side featured players who plied their trade in the Premier League for Newcastle United and in Ligue 1 for sides like Lille, Montpellier and Bordeaux. Conversely the hosts had called up a rag-tag bunch of naturalised pros from the lower league in Spain and had even snaffled a Brazilian keeper to play between the sticks.

The game started as you’d expect, with the Senegalese dominating processions. Despite their undoubted array of talent in front of goal the Teranga Lions couldn’t make the breakthrough and it was Equatorial Guinea’s Randy who headed into an unguarded net to give the hosts the lead with half an hour to go. Senegal’s game plan didn’t change and they continued to push bodies forward, scoring a fully deserved equaliser with seconds remaining.

After conceding the leveller Nzalang Nacional began to tire and it appeared that the momentum was with Senegal and it would be them who would go on to win the match. Then, three minutes into injury time Javier Balboa picked up the ball on the left side of attack. Rather than attempting to run down the clock to earn his side a creditable draw he played the ball square to full-back Kily who had sprinted the length of the pitch to join the attack. It was a remarkable achievement for him to show the stamina on a heavy pitch to get into that area of the pitch that late in the game, and an even more remarkable achievement to fire a shot at the Senegalese goal. But what was most remarkable was that Kily’s shot from twenty-five yards out, hit with the outside of his right foot, swerved past a helpless Bouna Coundol into the top corner of the Senegalese net.

It’s hard to fully put into context what a shock this result was. Perhaps a European comparison would be Malta or Luxembourg knocking Italy or Holland out of a European Championships. Equatorial Guinea’s first international match was in the mid 70s and it wasn’t until the mid 80s that they played their first competitive match. Despite being able to host an international tournament things haven’t gone smoothly off the pitch, their coach Gilson only took charge two weeks before the tournament and their top scorer and captain Bodipo limped out of the first match. But all these problems are now forgotten. Kily, a player who plays in the fourth tier in Spain, has become a national hero and most will forgive his wild celebrations that unsurprisingly saw him receive a yellow card.

The African Cup of Nations has been an absolute delight to watch and has put the 2010 World Cup to shame so far. Let’s hope it continues.

Sudan may have even snatched a point (or more) had Mudathir El-Tahir’s shot not been acrobatically tipped onto the crossbar by purple-bedecked Boudacir Barry’s flying fingertips. [Kit officianados who spend the long winter evenings reading FIFA documentation regarding kit regulations will be interested to see both Sudan and Ivory Coast wearing predominantly white socks (a flash of orange on white being the only difference between the sides). The Mauritian referee could well be dragged before a shadowy committee sometime after the end of the Africa Cup of Nations]

A question often asked about players is whether they can take their club form onto the international arena. Well, in the case of Gervinho that’s entirely true. The Arsenal forward showed that he can also be frustratingly inconsistent and profligate whilst wearing the colours of his international side Ivory Coast.  Ultimately it was his strike partner Didier Drogba who headed in from a  Solomon Kalou cross that handed the spoils to the west Africans over east Africa’s only representative at this Cup of Nations. Whilst the Ivorians won’t be pleased with the performance they’ll take some solace from the result, especially after seeing the Senegalese come unstuck against Zambia on Saturday.

The Elephants appeared to suffer from a similar disability to Senegal. Whilst you can see the undoubted talent of the players they appear not to be able to add tempo to their quality. If a team is well organised and drilled like Sudan they can often deal with accurate passing, it’s when this passing is executed in addition to a fast tempo that team’s often struggle to cope. This slow tempo led to my mind wandering from time to time, I began to quietly sing “His name was Lolo, he was a full-back” about the Ivorian right-back Igor Lolo (who’s currently keeping Arsenal favourite Emmanuel Eboue out of the side) and wondering whether Equatorial Guinea keeper Danilo could be convinced to sing this song at the end of tournament party, should this sort of event even exist.

I can only put this odd and embarrassing episode down to the fact that the Equatorial Guinean authorities have seen fit to place the camera for the Malabo stadium on top of the main stand and the pictures from Gabon are from such a height that they can give the casual viewer a form of vertigo. I’m not sure that the Ivorian players can make the same excuse.

Senegal lined up in their all white strip against Zambia in their green and orange number. If any football match ever symbolised the Tic Tacs battle between “minty fresh” and “fruity” then this was it. It was the Young Boys youngster Emmanuel Mayuka who impressed the most, finding space behind the Senegalese back-line on numerous occasions as the Terranga Lions back four. In the 12th minute the 21 year old Mayunka  headed the Copper Bullets into a fully deserved lead, his celebration matching his exuberant style as he somersaulted towards the touchline giving African Cup of Nations montage editors footage for their end of tournament  pieces.

Only eight minutes later the Chipolopolos had doubled their lead, Rainford Kalaba slotting past the rushing Senegalese keeper with some confidence. The Zambian player who plays his football in the Democratic Republic of Congo for recent African Champions League winners TP Mazembe celebrated with his substitutes who sported some of the finest tracksuit tops ever seen at an international tournament (seriously, if you get a chance take a look at Zambian subs in their forthcoming African Cup matches).

Senegal’s well taken consolation goal from one of the Terranga Lions’ less talked about front-men Dame N’Doye did lead to a resurgence in their fortunes, however their only other real chance was a header from Ba that struck the bar (or did it strike the Ba?). Despite their obvious difficulties in defence and their profligacy in possession the Terranga Lions did show enough to suggest they’ll have enough quality to see off Libya and Equatorial Guinea in their final two games, but their opening day loss gives them very little lee-way in their quest to reach the second stages.

Like many opening matches of major tournaments the opening exchanges were tentative and nervy. The game became riddled with mistakes as the centre third of the pitch became a battleground, most notably between Equatorial Guinea’s Konate and Libya’s man-mountain Mohamed. As the game settled down the players could finally start playing football (the Equatorial Guinea manager even took off his mustard coloured suit jacket as if to signal it was time to get down to business) the Libyans, decked out in white after eschewing the all green of the Gadaffi regime (surely when your country is finally free of a dictator one chooses a kit more inspiring than a clone of Leeds United?), showed some good touches in midfield whilst the Equatoguineans focussed on breaking through the marvellously named left winger, Randy.

As Equatorial Guinea grasped control of the game the Libyan keeper Abod lost his grasp of the ball. The 39 year old custodian relieved to be let off by an offside flag after allowing the tournament’s bright yellow Adidas ball slip under his body from a weak Equatoguinean shot. The Libyans in response attempted to build attacks through beanpole striker Zuweh who spent much of the game looking rather isolated, though when you’re that tall you’ll look isolated at the best of times. Zuweh’s only real contribution to the game a wild attempt at a bicycle kick and repeated tumbles to the ground as the ball whizzed ten foot over his head.

The Equatorial Guinea side has an almost unreal quality to it. The current boss Paolo Gilson only began his employment with the federation on the second of January and had scant time to build a side worthy of the competition. Additionally most of the players weren’t born in the country, many originate from Spain whilst others were born in countries as diverse as Cameroon, Nigeria and Colombia. It was interesting to note that almost every man in the Equatoguinean side wore yellow boots (some sort of boot deal?) whilst the national broadcaster spent much of the game focussing their cameras on watching politicians and dignitaries rather than the action on the field.

It was despite these oddities that they took the lead late on through Beira Mar’s Balboa (when has a Balboa won a bout early on?) after being played through by substitute Ekedo. A fairy tale for Equatorial Guinea in their first ever tournament and a nightmare for Libya. However, the Mediterranean Knights can have few complaints after their first loss in AFCON 2012 (no losses in qualification), they didn’t show enough to defeat the Nzalang Nacional and will now find it very tough to qualify from Group A against more established sides Zambia and Senegal.

An odd fact associated to the appointment of Chris Coleman is that in March 1994 Wales played Norway in an friendly at Ninian Park. It was the solitary game in John Toshack’s first spell as Welsh manager (a spell that lasted for little more than a few weeks). The team that day featured Chris Coleman, Neville Southall, Mark Hughes and Gary Speed. There can’t be many matches that involve five people who would one day go on to manage their country (in John Toshack’s case, for the second time, while Neville Southall managed Wales against Denmark in a caretaker role during the late 90s).

Four future Welsh managers in the starting line-up (Southall, Speed, Hughes and Coleman), one managing from the bench

I have no idea whether Chris Coleman is a good appointment or not. I can’t say I was particularly excited by Gary Speed when he was first appointed to the post (I was shown to be spectacularly wrong on that score). However, Coleman has a remarkably tough act to follow in Gary Speed as the form of the Welsh national side throughout 2011 was nothing short of sensational. Despite seeing Wales win a good number of games in the past I’ve never seen them brush aside teams of the quality of Montenegro, Bulgaria, Switzerland and Norway. It really did feel like the start of something special. I hope Chris can continue that good work.

Hat tip to Ian Hamer for pointing out that Neville Southall managed Wales in a caretaker capacity against Denmark in 1999.

I have to admit at this juncture that I don’t watch an awful lot of European football (I’m not sure any of us can keep up with five leagues at once). The only decision I would like to elaborate on is the decision to pick brothers Lionel and Kurt Zouma who play for Sochaux and Saint Etienne respectively. Both wear number 33.(Andrew Gibney of the peerless French Football Weekly informs me that the number 33 in France is used for footballers who haven’t yet been allocated a squad number)

The best number thirty-threes in Europe

Players in the top five leagues who wear number 33. Feel free to pick your own eleven.

PREMIER LEAGUE: Cameron Jerome (Stoke City), Alex (Chelsea), Paul Scharner (West Brom) and Stefan Maierhofer (Wolves)

LIGUE 1: Kurt Zouma (Saint Etienne), Lionel Zouma (Sochaux), Stephane Bahoken (Nice), Marco Dasilva (Valenciennes) and Adama Ba (Brest)

BUNDESLIGA: Tom Starke (Hoffenheim), Heinz Muller (Mainz), Alexander Esswein (Nurnberg), Manuel Schmiedebach (Hannover), Sascha Molders (Augsburg), Patrick Helmes (Wolfsburg) and Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich)

SERIE A: Alexandros Tzorvas (Palermo), Ciro Capuano (Catania), Thiago Silva (Milan) and Juraj Kucka (Genoa)

LA LIGA: Mamadou Kone (Racing Santander)

Unsurprisingly it’s the 2010/2011 Premier League champions Manchester United who lead the way with 87 points, closely followed by their “noisy neighbours” Manchester City. It’s interesting to see just how well Spurs performed during 2011, losing only one more time (7) than Manchester United and Manchester City (both 6).

Premier League: Calendar Year 2011 (sorted by average points per game)

The next table includes the three relegated sides and the three promoted sides of 2011. It gives an indication as to why Blackpool were relegated (an awful second part to the 10/11 season), it’ll be interesting to see whether the three promoted sides (QPR, Swansea and Norwich) experience similar problems heading into the latter stages of the current season.

Premier League: Calendar Year 2011 (sorted by average points per game)

2011 – a terrible year for teams whose name begins with the letter ‘B’.

It’s very tight at the top of the Championship table for 2011. Reading have the best points average yet it’s Middlesbrough who picked up more points during the year. Both these sides are closely followed by Cardiff City who finish the year having picked up 82 points, an identical tally to Reading. It might be slightly controversial as Boro picked up more points during 2011, but I feel the trophy should be awarded to Reading who achieved their points tally playing one fewer matches than Middlesbrough.

Forest’s struggles are emphasised in the table below. Despite qualifying for the playoffs in 2010/2011 they find themselves languishing in the bottom half of this table. Three managers in 2011 tell its own story for the Midlands club. It’s Doncaster Rovers who end the calendar year rock bottom; no other side lost as many Championship games during the calendar year.

Championship: Calendar Year 2011 (sorted by average points per game)

The following table includes all sides that spent any time in the Championship during the 2011 calendar year. It’s Southampton who end the year on top of the table (in average points per game terms). The south-coast club picked up an incredible 105 points during 2011 (58 in League One, and 47 in the Championship).

Championship: Calendar Year 2011 (sorted by average points per game)

As there are three teams promoted and four teams relegated from League One, seventeen sides spent the entirety of 2011 in the third tier. Of these teams it was League One play-off finalists Huddersfield Town that ended the year with the best record. It was only everyone’s favourite franchise MK Dons that won the same number of games during 2011.

It’s been a year to forget for the Saddlers as Walsall finish as the worst team to spend the whole of 2011 within the division (though Notts County lost the most games during the year). It’s notable that the side with the most draws in 2011 are the side with the best average points per game total, Huddersfield Town (20) and the team with the second most draws are the side with the worst average points per game total: Walsall. Each statistic tells its own story, it’s for you to unpick the bones from that one.

League One: Calendar Year 2011 (sorted by average points per game)

If you add all of the sides that have spent any time in League One during 2011 it’s 2010/2011 runners-up Southampton who have the best points per game record. It’s probably worth mentioning that despite teams such as Southampton, Brighton and Sheffield United only spending half a year in League One, Huddersfield still end the year as the side that lost the fewest games (only two during 2011). Relegated Swindon Town finish rock bottom of the table after being relegated and are now looking to bounce back from League Two at the first attempt under the stewardship of Italian nutball Paolo Di Canio.

League One: Calendar Year 2011 (sorted by average points per game)

League Two: Calendar Year 2011

If you include sides that spent at least some of 2011 in League Two then it’s Crawley Town who finish top of the pile with an exceptional record. Chesterfield and Bury (promoted at the end of last season also feature in the top three). Last year certainly looks like one to forget for Argyle fans who see their side only narrowly finishing above the now non-league Stockport County.

League Two: Calendar Year 2011

Stay tuned to the website over the coming days as I will be revealing the winners and losers of 2011 from a League One, Championship and finally Premier League perspective.