What a great sporting weekend it was. There was the Manchester derby, Liverpool against Burnley, Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal, Aston Villa against Everton and, of course, the Afcon final late on Sunday night. The Afcon final at Rabat in Morocco was to be a showpiece for Africa, and was watched by millions on the continent but it was still not as big as the Manchester derby which was watched by millions of fans around the world.
Man United did the improbable under interim manager Michael Carrick, beating Manchester City 2-0 at Old Trafford. Man United fans were ecstatic. They had beaten the great pretender.
Even more remarkable, Carrick beat Man United both as a player and as a manager. I am not a Man United fan but I celebrated. They had done Arsenal a favour.
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Last year’s premier league winners, Liverpool, could only manage a draw with Burnley. And then Unai Emery was left a frustrated figure at Villa Park when his hopes of narrowing the gap on log leaders Arsenal were dealt a heavy blow by Everton’s 1-0 win. Both Man United and Everton had done Arsenal a big favour but Arsenal couldn’t capitalise on the advantage and was held to a goalless draw against Nottingham Forest.
But the defeat of the chasing pack still means that Arsenal are sitting pretty on top of the league. And to round off the weekend came the Afcon final in Rabat. What was supposed to be Africa’s showpiece event ended in chaos, tarnishing the image of African soccer.
Senegal displayed unsporting behaviour, with players walking off the field and causing a 20 minute delay when Morocco was awarded a penalty. But the host nation couldn’t seize the golden opportunity to lift the Afcon trophy for the first time in front of a home crowd when Brahim Diaz failed to convert from the penalty spot. Then Senegal ended Morocco’s dream with a stunning long distance strike. Although Senegal lifted the Afcon trophy for the second time, their behaviour was shameful and gave Africa soccer a bad image.
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