Emilio Nsue scored twice as Equatorial Guinea routed Ivory Coast 4-0 to leave the host nation on the verge of elimination from the Africa Cup of Nations on Monday.
The home team was left to rue a host of missed chances as Nsue opened the scoring before the break, and Pablo Ganet fired in a brilliant free kick after it, two minutes before the 34-year-old Nsue capped his performance with his fifth goal of the tournament.
Jannick Buyla completed the rout on a counterattack in the 88th.
It sent Equatorial Guinea into the knockout stage as group winner with seven points.
Nigeria defeated Guinea-Bissau 1-0 in the other Group A match to take second place on goal difference, while Ivory Coast was left with the faint hope that its three points will be enough to end among the four best third-place finishers who also go through to the last 16.
Opa Sanganté’s own-goal in the 36th minute was enough for Nigeria. The Guinea-Bissau defender was trying to cut out a cross for Victor Osimhen.
Egypt and Ghana were battling later for second place in Group B with games against group winner Cape Verde and Mozambique, respectively. Only the top two are assured of progress.
Team P W D L GD Pts
1: Equatorial Guinea 3 2 1 0 6 7
2: Nigeria 3 2 1 0 2 7
3: Ivory Coast 3 1 0 2 -3 3
4: Guinea-Bissau 3 0 0 3 -5 0
