The African Cup 2017 turned out to be not the most productive but quite interesting. All football results of that tournament can be found on the informative statistical portal at any convenient time. At the championship, Guinea-Bissau made its debut, though it was unsuccessful, as it got the last place and not a single victory. It was this team that defeated 2:1 in Group A by the future winner of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon.
The tournament was distinguished by an interesting achievement: no national team was able to win the maximum 9 points in the group stage. However, the teams were pleased with the fact that there were no zeros in the “Points” and “Goals scored” columns. Only Egypt never missed a goal right up to the semifinals.
So, what national teams, according to experts, should be considered the best at the African Cup 2017?
- Cameroon. The victory in the tournament was not so easy for this team. They managed to win only once in the group, with the modest statistics of goals scored and conceded 3:2. Cameroon played better in the playoffs, but far from perfect. But no one can assume that they didn’t deserve the victory.
- Egypt. For the first time in many previous tournaments, the Pharaohs scored only 2 goals at the group stage. However, they didn’t miss a single goal, and for the first time the national team was disappointed by Burkina Faso in the semifinals. In the final, Cameroon twice disappointed the Egyptians who failed to become champions.
- Burkina Faso. Not the strongest national team managed to make it to the semifinals and beat Ghana in the match for third place. This was not the best achievement of Burkina Faso, but the lineup was significantly inferior even to Tunisia, which they managed to beat in the quarterfinals.
There were no sensations at the tournament as such. The players of Côte d’Ivoire played poorly and they have never won the tournament.
Achievements of national teams and players in the Africa Cup 2017
66 goals were scored in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. This is not the best result in the history of this football championship. However, the tournament was still held at the highest level and fans were rarely bored. The following achievements are worth highlighting:
- Cameroon became the champion for the fifth time and overtook Ghana in terms of the number of titles, so to catch up with Egypt, they need to win 2 more times;
- in 4 matches, Congo’s striker Junior Kabananga scored 3 goals and gave 1 assist, becoming the most productive player of the tournament;
- Christian Bassogog was named the best player of the 2017 African Cup.
There were only 2 own goals in the tournament and this rally was the last one in the old format. The future Africa Cup of Nations was restructured: the 1/8 stage was introduced and the top four third-place teams were advanced to the playoffs.
