BY CIARÁN FAHEY
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Host country Ivory Coast is writing Hollywood scripts at the Africa Cup of Nations.
The team has been implausibly avoiding elimination again and again in the tournament and now, somehow, the Elephants have made it to the semifinals.
The players held their heads after the latest incredible escape as if they couldn’t believe it, either.
“This evening was magnificent, magnificent,” Ivory Coast captain Serge Aurier said after Saturday’s dramatic 2-1 win over Mali. “It’s really what we wanted to do – not the emotional roller coaster like that. But that‘s what makes football, and that’s what makes the beauty of this Africa Cup right from the start.”
Ivory Coast was all but eliminated after a 4-0 defeat to Equatorial Guinea in the group stage, its second straight after a loss to Nigeria. The Ivorian federation fired its coach as the country wallowed
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