AFCON FINAL 2024: Flipped chairs, breakdancing and a flying wig: Watching Ivory Coast upset the odds. Again.

AFCON 2024: Flipped chairs, breakdancing and a flying wig: Watching Ivory Coast upset the odds. Again

A woman in a white shirt ran into the road, whipped her wig off and twirled it around in the air. In the quarter-final against Mali, Ivory Coast scored a late equaliser and had to grind through an extra 30 minutes.

Glasses smashed, liquor spilled and chairs flipped when Oumar Diakite scored with seconds left of added time in extra time to prevent a second straight penalty shootout.

Supporters jumped up and down or started breakdancing on the floor, unable to decide on the best form of celebration. Expletives were hurled at the television when tempers flared on the pitch and Mali’s distraught players confronted referee Mohamed Adel at full-time.

Motorbikes flew along the road doing wheelies, chased by groups of children. Two men walked around with a speaker blasting “Coup du marteau”, the tournament’s unofficial anthem, prompting young and old to shake their hips.

Ivory Coast have been on the brink of elimination on multiple occasions at AFCON 2023 yet, somehow, they have reached the final…