Home fans party all night to celebrate their team’s qualification to quarters
What you need to know:
- Most shops and other businesses in this port City remained closed by 10am yesterday, 24 hours after locals put a stop their normal daily activities to cheer their national football team.
- Fans from all walks of life, including young children and pregnant women, streamed into the streets in jubilation, song and dance immediately after the final whistle of the final Group A match against Gabon which the hosts won 2-0.
- The crowd later trekked the some 5km back to the city centre, with a majority of the human traffic ending up at several entertainment joints including the famous ‘Labonjiko’, ‘Klub Jerichoah’, and ‘Aliaaneh Pub’.
Residents of Bata City were on Monday still nursing hangovers after a long night of celebrations and partying on Sunday evening following their national team’s qualification to the quarter finals of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Most shops and other businesses in this port City remained closed by 10am yesterday, 24 hours after locals put a stop their normal daily activities to cheer their national football team.
Fans from all walks of life, including young children and pregnant women, streamed into the streets in jubilation, song and dance immediately after the final whistle of the final Group A match against Gabon which the hosts won 2-0.
The roads leading out of the magnificent architectural work that is the Estadio de Bata were jammed with hundreds of cars plus tens of thousands of fans, some of whom had joined the 36,000 crowd that had been following the proceedings inside the facility moments after the final whistle at 9:05 pm local time.
“Thanks to the Government of Equatorial Guinea and its people for supporting us all through. Now the fans can all go out and celebrate this success, we will not join them at this moment because we still have some work to do,” Equatorial Guinea’s Argentine coach Esteban Becker told journalists after the match.
JAVIER BALBOA
Fans donning the team’s replica jerseys and draped in the national flag and head scarves sat on vehicle roof tops while shouting the names of their favourite players, mostly Javier Balboa, scorer of the first goal of the match and Emiliano Nsue who scored the opening goal of the tournament against Congo.
“Whoever doubted our team and its quality can go hang in shame, the Africa Cup of Nations title will remain here in Bata,” one fan declared.
The hit song of yesteryear Unbwogabble, by Kenyan musicians Gidi Gidi and Maji Maji, was among the various triumphant songs that was blaring out from the speakers of several cars stuck in the long queue of traffic at least an hour after the match’s conclusion.
Another group fans opted to engage a sizeable chunk of Gabonese fans in a banter over some of the contentious decisions in during the match including the penalty that led to the first goal.
REMAINED CALM
The losing set of fans, perhaps cautious of the fact that they were greatly outnumbered, opted to remain calm.
The crowd later trekked the some 5km back to the city centre, with a majority of the human traffic ending up at several entertainment joints including the famous ‘Labonjiko’, ‘Klub Jerichoah’, and ‘Aliaaneh Pub’.
“We have done it again! This is not a miracle, it shows how good our team is. There is no stopping us now,” another fan said. The Nzalang Nacional, which is the lowest ranked team in this competition, surprised many fans by securing qualification into the quarter finals at the expense of the highly fancied Burkina Faso, who emerged runners up in the last edition of this tournament in South Africa, and perennial campaigners Gabon.
