Africa-Press – Cape verde. Cape Verde’s senior men’s handball team beat Angola, this afternoon, by 24-23 in the quarter-final game of the African Cup of Nations (CAN 2022) taking place in Cairo, Egypt. With this victory, the national team passes to the semi-finals and automatically qualifies for the 2023 World Cup
The final moments of the match were very emotional and dramatic and may have been the longest seconds in the entire course of the national volleyball team since, with just a few seconds left for the final whistle, and with Cape Verde winning by the smallest margin ( 24-23), Angola benefited from a penalty that could make the Angolan team get the tie in the match.
Goalkeeper Edimilson, the “Man of the Game” Fortunately, those final seconds of the match confirmed the great performance that was being recorded by the “Hero of the Match”, the goalkeeper of the Cape Verde team, Edimilson Gonçalves, who defended the penalty, thus ensuring the minimum advantage with which the game ended, that is, the victory of the Cape Verdean team by (24-23).
Edmilson was also considered by the CAN 2022 organization the “Man of the Game”, as if the title of “Hero of the Match” was not enough, which many Cape Verdeans will have attributed to him.
The first half was relatively balanced and ended with a tangential advantage for Cape Verde by 12 -13. In the second half, despite pressure from the Angolan team, Cape Verde managed to keep ahead of the scoreboard and ended the match with a 23-24 tangential victory.
In the semi-finals, Cape Verde will face Morocco, which today beat Guinea-Conakry by 28-24. The match is scheduled for this Saturday, the 16th. Cape Verde avoids Egypt in the semi-finals
In the preview of the quarter-final game with Angola, the President of the Cape Verdean Handball Federation, António (Tony) Teixeira, had highlighted that one of the motivating and attractive factors for the Cape Verdean team was that, in the event of a victory over the Angolan team, the national team would not play in the semi-finals with the mighty Egypt, which is the best African team of all time.
“If we manage to beat Angola, in the semi-finals, we will avoid Egypt, which is the best African team of all time”, argued Tony Teixeira, explaining that, in theory, facing another team in the semi-finals, the Cape- would have a much better chance of reaching the final of the current African Cup of Nations (CAN 2022).
In fact, Cape Verde managed to avoid Egypt, leading to the selection of Morocco. It remains now to wait for tomorrow’s game, Saturday, the possibility of reaching the final of the present African Cup of Nations (CAN 2022). Road to the semi-finals
Before this victory over Angola (24-23) in the semi-finals, the national team to reach the quarter-finals reached the second position of group C, thanks to a victory over Nigeria that was out of the competition as they also lost with Tunisia, first in the group with two victories. Kenya, which was also part of group C, withdrew from the competition.
With this victory over Angola and the consequent passage to the semi-finals, Cape Verde is now among the four best African teams, thus surpassing the fifth position achieved in the previous edition held in Tunisia, in January 2020. The Egypt team was the winner of this edition.
The African Cup of Nations (CAN 2022) handball runs until the 18th in the capital of Egypt (Cairo), with the participation of 14 African teams. The top five qualify for the 2023 World Championship of the sport to be played in Poland, from 12 to 29 January.
It is recalled that CAN’2022 was initially scheduled for January this year, in the Kingdom of Morocco, but was postponed due to the alleged irregularity in the draw held in December 2021.
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