African Cup Of Nations 
/ Jonathan Wilson / 06 February 2012 / Leave a Comment 
Kolo Toure has been one of the main reasons why the Ivory Coast are yet to concede a goal at the tournament
"This Ivory Coast just keeps grinding on, and there’s no reason to see them stopping here."
Feeling like Jack Nicholson in an Antonioni film, making do with basic levels of French in Gabon and predicting the demise of Mali at the hands of tournament favourites the Ivory Coast. It's Jonathan Wilson's diary.
More and more this trip is feeling like the Antonioni film The Passenger, in which Jack Nicholson plays a dissolute journalist in central Africa who, sick of the constraints of his middle-class life, takes advantage of the death of a fellow guest at his small hotel to exchange identities with him. The Hotel Jones in Luba may have looked like that hotel (although weirdly, when I went back the other day, I saw the building wasn't pale blue as I'd remembered it, but white with pale blue writing; either the memory is fallible, or the Chinese construction workers who've built a new concrete flood defence in front of it in under a week had repainted the place).
But even more redolent of that film was what happened this morning. I landed in Libreville at around 4.30 this morning. I'd arranged a room in a house with some other journalists, but being in a residential area, it didn't have an address, so I'd been told to ring a mobile number of a man named Joel, who apparently only spoke French.
My French is appalling at the best of times, but especially after three weeks of speaking Spanish (I can just about switch from English to 'foreign', but switching from one 'foreign' to another I find much harder). I dialled the number, fully expecting silence, but after two
rings somebody answered.
"Bonjour, c'est Jonathan?" said a voice.
"Oui. C'est Jonathan. Je suis arrive a l'aeroport."
"Bien." He hung up.
I waited. Twenty minutes later, a man approached me, somehow seeming to know who I was, shook my hand and led me to a car. As dawn broke over the Gabon capital, I arrived at the house. A gate opened mysteriously and I was shown in. In The Passenger, Nicholson is suddenly presented with a huge amount of cash for an arms deal he has
no hope of fulfilling. I was given a key and a towel and presented with a Spartan but perfectly serviceable room.
The stadium experience in Libreville began well - there's nothing like ferocious air-conditioning and free fish with vegetable stew to make a pasty British journalist feel at home in 30 degree heat and 80 percent humidity. It ended, though, in disappointment. Journalists shouldn't really favour either team, of course, but the exit of Gabon has undoubtedly deflated the tournament.
A semi-final between the hosts and the favourites could have been a classic, the pace and power of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Daniel Cousin tearing into a defence that is yet to concede; Mali against Ivory Coast, by contrast, likely to be played in a stadium that is all but empty, doesn't fire the imagination to anything like the same extent.
This Mali side feels as though it has risen almost without trace, lucky to beat Guinea and falling behind against Botswana before turning things around. It had its share of fortune on Sunday as well, Aubameyang and Cousin both hitting the post before Cheikh Diabate
hooked in the equaliser. They have resolve and bottle, perhaps inspired by the desire to do something for a country racked by the threat of the Tuareg rebels in the north-east, but it would be hard to argue Mali have been one of the best four teams in the tournament.
RECOMMENDED BET: This Ivory Coast just keeps grinding on, and there's no reason to see them stopping here. The bet on them to beat Equatorial Guinea 2-0 in the quarter-final was thwarted only by a brilliant late Yaya Toure free-kick, but Mali should have the defensive resolve to keep the score down to one or two. It's become a theme of late, but I'm going to suggest splitting the stake and backing 1-0 and 2-0.
Jonathan Wilson discusses a weekend of quarter-final matches and explains why he is especially look forward to Sunday......
James Eastham believes Gabon will make history by winning their quarter-final on Sunday afternoon....
James Eastham believes the tournament second favourites are too short for their quarter-final on Sunday evening....
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