{"id":8529,"date":"2022-01-13T10:35:48","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T10:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea"},"modified":"2022-01-13T11:19:26","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T11:19:26","slug":"as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea","title":{"rendered":"As it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Ivory Coast reminded everyone why they were favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations when they beat Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday with a sterling Max Gradel goal in the sixth minute.<\/b><\/p>\n

Equatorial Guinea were hard to break down for the rest of the match, but Ivory Coast never looked in danger of throwing away their lead. It was a brilliantly ruthless strike from Gradel that put Ivory Coast ahead \u2013 he reacted in a split-second when sloppy defending gave him the ball on the edge of the box, smashing a piledriver into the back of the net.<\/p>\n

Ivory Coast didn’t look back. Equatorial Guinea were pertinacious \u2013 getting men back effectively and constantly attempting to counter-attack. But Ivory Coast kept pulling together beautiful strings of midfield passes and frequently converted them into attacking menace with darting runs towards the box.<\/p>\n

They have long been one of the most impressive African national teams \u2013 boasting one of the continent’s greatest players of all time, Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, and winning CAN in 1992 and 2015.<\/p>\n

Drogba is long gone \u2013 as are most of the players who won that Africa Cup of Nations trophy six years ago, such as Yaya Tour\u00e9 and Kolo Tour\u00e9. But fresh talent has poured in to the Ivory Coast ranks.<\/p>\n

In addition to Gradel, they have S\u00e9bastian Haller, the Champions League top scorer so far this season, and Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha, one of the Premier League’s best strikers. Take a look at FRANCE 24’s liveblog below to see how the action unfolded, as Ivory Coast confirmed that they’re one of their teams to beat.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Ivory Coast reminded everyone why they were favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations when they beat Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday with a sterling Max Gradel goal in the sixth minute. Equatorial Guinea were hard to break down for the rest of the match, but Ivory Coast never looked in danger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":8528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17,16],"tags":[1384,233,246,1399,125,102,245,910],"class_list":["post-8529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-cup-of-nations","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-equatorial-guinea","tag-football","tag-ivory-coast","tag-lesotho","tag-sport"],"yoast_head":"\nAs it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ivory Coast reminded everyone why they were favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations when they beat Equatorial Gui ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ivory Coast reminded everyone why they were favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations when they beat Equatorial Gui ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-13T10:35:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-13T11:19:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61e00a9609226.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"As it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-13T10:35:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-13T11:19:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea\"},\"wordCount\":296,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61e00a9609226.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Cup of Nations\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Equatorial Guinea\",\"football\",\"Ivory Coast\",\"Lesotho\",\"Sport\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea\",\"name\":\"As it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61e00a9609226.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-13T10:35:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-13T11:19:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Ivory Coast reminded everyone why they were favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations when they beat Equatorial Gui ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61e00a9609226.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61e00a9609226.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"As it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"As it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"As it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea - Lesotho","description":"Ivory Coast reminded everyone why they were favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations when they beat Equatorial Gui ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"As it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea","og_description":"Ivory Coast reminded everyone why they were favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations when they beat Equatorial Gui ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-01-13T10:35:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-13T11:19:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61e00a9609226.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"As it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea","datePublished":"2022-01-13T10:35:48+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-13T11:19:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea"},"wordCount":296,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61e00a9609226.jpg","keywords":["Africa Cup of Nations","Africa Press","Africa Press-Lesotho","Equatorial Guinea","football","Ivory Coast","Lesotho","Sport"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","sport","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea","name":"As it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61e00a9609226.jpg","datePublished":"2022-01-13T10:35:48+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-13T11:19:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Ivory Coast reminded everyone why they were favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations when they beat Equatorial Gui ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61e00a9609226.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/01\/img-61e00a9609226.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"As it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/as-it-happened-lethal-max-gradel-gives-ivory-coast-1-0-victory-over-equatorial-guinea#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"As it happened: Lethal Max Gradel gives Ivory Coast 1-0 victory over Equatorial Guinea"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}