{"id":635830,"date":"2024-02-13T03:24:49","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T08:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=635830"},"modified":"2024-02-13T03:26:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T08:26:08","slug":"brighton-simon-adingra-lights-up-afcon-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/02\/13\/brighton-simon-adingra-lights-up-afcon-final\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Talented\u2019 Brighton Winger Lights up AFCON Final and Leads Ivory Coast to Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brighton and Hove Albion winger Simon Adingra produced a man-of-the-match performance as he set up both goals in Ivory Coast\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/football\/story\/_\/id\/39507809\/ivory-coast-kings-afcon-nigeria-rue-peseiros-decisions\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2-1 victory<\/a> over Nigeria to win the Africa Cup of Nations. A return to the Premier League in this form could be crucial for the Seagulls.<\/p>\n<h2>Brighton Winger Simon Adingra Produces Scintillating AFCON Final Performance<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Watch:<\/strong> The Domino Effect Ruining Football<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"THE DOMINO EFFECT RUINING FOOTBALL\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fNQxiqia1Vo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>How Simon Adingra Inspired the Comeback<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>After not starting the first five games, Adingra\u2019s 90th-minute equaliser against Mali in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/football\/africa-cup-of-nations\/2024\/mali-v-ivory-coast-afcon-quarter-final-live_sto10004333\/story.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">quarter-finals<\/a> earned him a spot in the starting eleven at the business end of the competition as he went on to win Young Player of the Tournament.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old started the semi-final and final on the left wing and his pace saw him have the beating of Nigeria\u2019s right-back Ola Aina on multiple occasions on Sunday night. The former Royale Union SG man nearly opened the scoring in the first half but had his effort from a narrow angle saved well by Stanely Nwabali.<\/p>\n<p>The Brighton winger\u2019s corner in the 62nd minute found Franck Kessie, who headed home to equalise for the host nation after William Troost-Ekong gave Nigeria the lead in the opening period.<\/p>\n<p>As the game looked to be heading for extra time, the <a href=\"https:\/\/khelnow.com\/football\/2023-07-world-football-simon-adingra-profile-scouting-report\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;talented&#8221;<\/a> youngster took the ball past Aina in the 81<sup>st<\/sup> minute and his delivery into the box was met by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/africa\/68241658\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sebastian Haller<\/a> who poked home and won the game for Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n<p>The winger had been looking for the Dortmund man all evening who had gone close twice earlier in the game thanks to Adingra\u2019s work down the left-hand side.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Adingra\u2019s Importance To The Seagulls<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Seagulls had lost just one of the five games Adingra was involved in before heading on international duty, which was away to title challengers Arsenal.<\/p>\n<p>Roberto De Zerbi\u2019s side now have just one win in their last five league games and have slipped one place in the league to ninth since Adingra\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/01\/10\/brighton-valentin-barco-boca-juniors-transfer\/\" target=\"_self\">Medical Booked: Brighton Beat Manchester City And Liverpool In Race To Sign South American \u2018Phenomenon\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Despite operating on the left for his country, Adingra has been used predominantly on the right wing for the south-coast side and has been deployed in the number ten role at times.<\/p>\n<p>The Ivorian has scored five goals and registered three assists in all competitions for Brighton, making him joint third for both goals and goal involvements this season.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How Adingra\u2019s Return Will Impact Brighton<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The winger will inject pace and creativity into a team that aside from a 4-1 victory over rivals Crystal Palace has struggled to find the net in the league in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The Palace victory ended a run of three league games without a goal and with top scorer Joao Pedro now out with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brightonandhovealbion.com\/news\/3886973\/spurs-team-news-joao-pedro-ruled-out\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hamstring injury<\/a>, the Seagulls could find goals even harder to come by.<\/p>\n<p>The return of Adingra will impact the minutes of 19-year-old Facundo Buonanotte who has started the eight games since Adingra\u2019s departure, mainly from the right-hand side.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2023\/12\/13\/brighton-adam-brett-sami-mokbel\/\" target=\"_self\">Brighton &amp; Hove Albion Suffer Loss of &#8216;Key Member&#8217;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The African champion\u2019s return coincides with a favorable run of fixtures for De Zerbi\u2019s men with their next four league games against bottom-half sides. This run of games starts with a trip to bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United just three weeks after their 5-2 victory at Bramall Lane in the FA Cup.<\/p>\n<p>With Kaoru Mitoma returning from international duty last weekend, De Zerbi will hope the return of these wingers will help the Seagulls regain their early season momentum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brighton and Hove Albion winger Simon Adingra produced a man-of-the-match performance as he set up both goals in Ivory Coast\u2019s 2-1 victory over Nigeria to win the Africa Cup of Nations. A return to the Premier League in this form could be crucial for the Seagulls. Brighton Winger Simon Adingra Produces Scintillating AFCON Final Performance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5049,"featured_media":635867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1265,161,3],"tags":[790,926,2534,31752],"class_list":["post-635830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brighton-and-hove-albion","category-international-football","category-premier-league","tag-afcon","tag-brighton-and-hove-albion","tag-ivory-coast","tag-simon-adingra"],"modified_by":"Delight Wellington","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5049"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}