Ivory Coast 0-0 Togo: Afcon 2017 – as it happened

The defending champions were held to a goalless draw by Togo in a cautious opening match

5.57pm GMT

The first rule of tournament football is you shall not

talk about tourn
lose the first game, and that fear dominated a poor game. We shouldn’t underestimate how good a result that is for Togo, however. Thanks for your company, night!

5.51pm GMT

90 min Added minutes there will be three.

5.50pm GMT

89 min Togo’s final substitution: Razak Boukari replaces the terrific Adebayor.

5.50pm GMT

88 min Aurier heads Grazel’s diniked cross just wide. It was a really good effort, flicked deliberately towards the far corner. The keeper was nowhere near it and it drifted past the post.

5.48pm GMT

87 min Togo make another substitution, with Dossevi replaced by Komlan Agbegniadan.

5.47pm GMT

84 min Adebayor has had a paternal influence on the game, moving all over the field, trying to be involved in everything. It’s quite sweet actually. Togo have been terrific, they fully deserve a draw. Their two wingers, Bebou and Dossevi, have both looked really dangerous at times.

5.43pm GMT

81 min Togo replace Laba with Serge Akakpo, and Ivory Coast bring on Bournemouth’s Max Gradel for Aston Villa’s Kodija.

5.42pm GMT

80 min The lively Dossevi bursts into the box on the right and dinks the ball onto the roof of the net. I’m not sure whether that was a mishit cross or an attempt to chip Gbouhou, but it doesn’t really matter either way.

5.40pm GMT

79 min Bony beats Ouro with a stepover and is flattened just outside the area. The free-kick is a fair way to the left of centre and Aurier clatters it into the wall.

5.39pm GMT

78 min That was a chance for Togo. Adebayor plays a nice reverse ball down the left to Bebou, whose cross is headed over from near the penalty spot by Laba. It looked a great chance, though replays showed it took a small but vital deflection off a defender just before it reached Laba.

5.37pm GMT

77 min Almost a chance for Togo. Dossevi’s free-kick from the right flashes dangerously across the six-yard box before being cleared.

5.36pm GMT

76 min Ivory Coast are starting to have more of the ball, though you couldn’t really say they are dominating as they aren’t creating anything.

5.34pm GMT

73 min I suppose, as terrible as this game has been, the result would be okay for both sides. Ivory Coast still have two winnable games to come against DR Congo and Morocco, while Togo - who got to this tournament by going through the cat-flap in the back door - would still have hope of sneaking through the group.

5.32pm GMT

71 min “Hello from the United States,” says Joe Harvey. “As an academy washout, and a man who plays with some former professionals, how crap they are in 5 a side depends mostly on what made them special when they were pros. There are a fair amount of good players for whom once the pace is gone, the game is completely gone. Not that they aren’t functional and you wouldn’t want them on your team- practicing 5 days a week for however many years has its benefits, they just don’t set themselves apart from the pack in a very competitive league. It’s rare that they can take over a match. There are exceptions - I played with a guy who should still be playing at Werder Bremen, and he would single-handedly wrest the match from even very good opposing teams.”

On that note, I saw one of the Brazil 1998 World Cup squad playing seven-a-side recently and, seriously, he was rubbish.

5.29pm GMT

70 min One Wilfried replaces another for Ivory Coast: Bony for Zaha. That’s a surprise as Zaha has been a threat, especially in the last 10 minutes.

5.29pm GMT

68 min Zaha surges down the right onto a long pass, does a Cruyff-turn on the run to get past Djene and moves infield before hitting a left-footed shot that is superbly blocked by Gakpe. That shot was certainly on target and possibly heading towards the corner.

5.26pm GMT

67 min Bebou, who has been sporadically dangerous down the left for Togo, runs at Aurier and wins a corner. It’s headed clear.

5.26pm GMT

66 min So anyway, who do you reckon did shoot JR?

5.24pm GMT

65 min Ivory Coast make their first change: Seri off, Doukoure on.

5.21pm GMT

62 min Kessie is given a soft free-kick just outside the Toga area. Kalou wafts it over the bar; Phil Podolsky winces knowingly.

5.18pm GMT

59 min Zaha has been the most vivacious and probably the best attacker on the pitch. He plays a good pass down the line to Kessie, whose cross is headed clear.

5.17pm GMT

57 min Kodija wins a corner for Ivory Coast on the left. It’s played short to Zaha, who surges past Atakora on the edge of the box and hits a rising drive not far over the top. The keeper had it covered but it was good play from Zaha.

5.15pm GMT

55 min Kodija heads a simple chance wide from eight yards, then finds out he was offside anyway.

5.13pm GMT

53 min Serey Die fouls Laba, 30 yards from goal. Ayite decides not to shoot on goal, instead playing it wide to Gakpe. As the ball bounces up he heads it way from Traore, who accidentally kicks him flush in the coupon. Kapow! Another free-kick for Togo, this time just outside the box on the right. Dossevi overhits it and, though Adebayor stretches to head the ball back into the area, the attack soon fizzles out. Togo made a not inconsiderable Horlicks of two free-kicks in very good positions.

5.08pm GMT

49 min “Hi Rob,” says Kelvin. “Stockport’s Kevin Francis was crap... Please post before and after pictures.”

I wasn’t talking about my eyes, Kelvin.

5.08pm GMT

48 min The players have seen the sleepy start to the first half and lowered it. The lack of urgency on both sides, even allowing for the inevitable first-match-of-the-tournament caution, has verged on the weird.

5.06pm GMT

47 min David Edson has contributed to the Adebayor love-in, sending in the below clip. I hadn’t seen that before. It’s a rare type of goal: the close-range screamer.

5.05pm GMT

46 min Emmanuel Adebayor begins the second half for Togo.

4.59pm GMT

Half-time crapchat

“Rob,” says Steve Johnson. “You undersell how good many of these crap players are. You could stick most of them in a Championship side and they would stand out, never mind embarrassing your average Booze-Ravaged Middle Aged Wednesday Night 5-a-Siders. In fact there are a lot of ‘crap’ players who are not actually crap at all, but received wisdom or fashion or whatever it is deems them to be so. I know what I’m talking about. I am a Stockport County fan and over the years we have had a lot of crap players…”

4.51pm GMT

That was not the greatest half of football in the history of mankind. It probably wasn’t in the top gazillion. But the second half will be better! Right?

4.50pm GMT

45+1 min Dossevi yelps for a penalty when a cross hits the arm of Traore. He was jumping on the spot, imploring anyone and everyone to give a penalty. It did hit Traore’s arm but I think it deflected off his chest and certainly wasn’t deliberate.

4.48pm GMT

45 min “’Lively’ is probably as fulsome a praise as Kalou’s performances have ever merited,” says Phil Podolsky. “For years I’ve writing to the MBM to say ‘he can’t possibly be one of the best 11 footballers of any given nation state’ yet there he is, every time.”

What I love about crap footballers, or perceived crap footballers, is that if they played 5-a-side with us they would be the best player on the pitch by a million miles.

4.47pm GMT

44 min Kodija works a shooting position in the box but it’s blocked by Ouro.

4.45pm GMT

43 min Togo have had three corners in as many minutes. All of them produced sweet bugger all but, well, it’s the thought that counts.

4.44pm GMT

40 min Laba, as he is falling over, stabs a good pass round the corner for Dossevi, and Serey Die has to get back and concede a corner.

4.41pm GMT

36 min A bone-crunching challenge in the middle of the pitch between Ayite and Serey Die. Ayite was penalised but the Togo players were really unhappy with Sereye Die’s challenge and ran towards the referee. It was certainly a zestful tackle, and Ayite is off the field receiving treatment, though I don’t think he went over the top or anything like that. They just clattered into each other at speed.

4.38pm GMT

33 min Zaha skins Djene thrillingly on the right and drives a dangerous low cross into the six-yard box. The keeper Agassa plunges to his right to make a half-save, without which Kodija might have had a tap-in, and it’s helped behind for a corner by Gakpe.

4.35pm GMT

32 min At the risk of patronising 11 gentlemen who are infinitely better at football than I ever was, Togo have done really well so far. What was supposed to be a one-sided match has been pretty even in every aspect.

4.34pm GMT

29 min Great chance for Togo! An Ivory Coast corner was cleared to Adebayor, who launched a counter-attack with some deft footwork. Eventually Bebou, the lively left winger, played a fine angled pass to put Dossevi through on goal. He had to take the short first time on the stretch, and his stabbed shot was smothered by the outrushing Gbohouo. That was an excellent save, as much as anything for the anticipation and speed off his line.

4.29pm GMT

27 min A headed clearance drops to Adebayor, who tries an acrobatic volley from 35 yards. You can probably guess what happens next.

4.29pm GMT

25 min “Here is the reason why the stadiums are empty...” says Matt Kidd. “In summary, tickets were given away free to the Gabonese. Jean Ping’s supporters organized a boycott. People posted pictures to social media of burned and ripped up tickets.”

4.27pm GMT

24 min A cute touch from Adebayor allows Ayite to move towards the Ivory Coast area. The ball ricochets a few times before breaking to Laba on the edge of the box. Ayite is backing up the play and the two of them get in each others way to such an extent that Laba mishits a tame shot well wide.

4.26pm GMT

23 min “I assume you’re watching on telly and they’ve not stumped up flights for you?!?” says Michael Bushell. Arf! “Still, hoping that Wilf does his thing - if nothing else to highlight the FA’s general incompetence.”

4.25pm GMT

22 min Nothing remotely notable has happened in the last 10 minutes or so.

4.25pm GMT

21 min This game, thus far, has not been life-changing.

4.23pm GMT

18 min Ali G’s favourite footballer, Eric Bailly, is of course playing at the back for Ivory Coast. There are a few England-based players in the starting XIs today: Zaha, Adebayor, Kalou, Kodija and Ayite.

4.19pm GMT

17 min The free-kick is taken by Seri and headed behind for a corner by Adebayor, doing his Roy Race bit in both boxes.

4.18pm GMT

16 min Ivory Coast are starting to dominate the game, with Salomon Kalou looking particularly lively on the left. Zaha has started well too and wins a free-kick on the right edge of the area.

4.17pm GMT

14 min “Sorry about your empty inbox,” says Maria Hammershoy. “I’m following. Keep it up please! Togo needs to win.”

I just want Adebayor to do this again.

4.15pm GMT

12 min On reflection/after gawping at a couple of replays, I don’t think that was a foul from Gakpe. Kodija did well to get there first and manufacture a shot while off balance, and it was a decent save from Agassa.

4.14pm GMT

10 min Kodija has the first big chance of the match for Ivory Coast. He was put clear by a nice through ball by Kalou but was stumbling slightly after a tackle from Gakpe and could only stab his shot at the outrushing Agassa. If he had gone down that might have been a penalty.

4.11pm GMT

8 min This has been a decent start for Togo, who have enjoyed some good possession. The whole match feels very sluggish though.

4.09pm GMT

7 min A promising run down the left from Bebou, who nutmegs Aurier before playing it infield to Adebayor. He runs into trouble and that’s the end of that.

4.06pm GMT

4 min It’s been a very leisurely start to the game, with both teams ambling out of the blocks.

4.04pm GMT

2 min “Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!” writes JR in Illinois. “Of course it’s a holiday here in the U.S. so instead of work I get to watch some live soccerball. This will really banjax my usual podcast-listening schedule but I’ll just need to find time later. I got 7 answers correct on the quiz as well. Yeah, about 3 or 4 of those were essentially complete guesses. Then maybe 2 or 3 were educated guesses.”

Yeah, but that question where you had to write your own name was answered with total authority.

4.03pm GMT

1 min Peep peep! The Ivory Coast kick off from left to right. They are in white; Togo are in red.

4.01pm GMT

The stadium is surprisingly empty. My inbox is also empty, though this is less of a surprise.

3.50pm GMT

Pre-match quiz

I managed a respectable 7/10, thanks entirely to the wonders of multiple choice.

Related: How much do you know about the Africa Cup of Nations? – quiz

3.41pm GMT

I could talk about the merits of each team, but our African football expert Paul Doyle - no Wikipedia for him! - knows approximately 471234120429452354235 times more than I do, so here’s his preview:

Related: Afcon 2017: a group-by-group guide to the Africa Cup of Nations

3.33pm GMT

Ivory Coast (4-3-3) Gbohouo; Aurier, Bailly, Kanon, Traore; Seri, Serey Die, Kessie; Zaha, Kodjia, Kalou.

Togo (4-D-2) Agassa; Gakpé, Romao, Ouro, Djené; Atakora, Dossevi, Bebou; F.Ayité, Adebayor, Laba.

10.23am GMT

Hello. If you’re a student of African football, or you know how to use Wikipedia, you be aware that the Cup of Nations has been retained a fair bit in the 21st century. Cameroon won back-to-back tournaments in 2000 and 2002, and Egypt won three in a row from 2006 to 2010.

The Ivory Coast’s attempt to retain the trophy they won in 2015, and to win this trophy without recourse to a never-ending penalty shoot-out against Ghana in the final, starts today with what should - should - be a relatively comfortable match against Togo.

Related: Afcon 2017: Sadio Mané on target as Senegal defeat wasteful Tunisia

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