Chelle-oiled machine

The Mali coach, who shall henceforth be known as Saintfiet Tom, was politesse incarnate when referring to Day 2's opponents Zambia. Rave, did he. But the 52-year-old Belgian appears to have a rival. Before fielding the questions from the assortment of vloggers and frustrated cloggers about the opening Group C game against Tanzania, the Nigeria bossEric Chellebegan his press conference with a flurry of compliments. "I want to say thank you for the welcome we've had from the people of Morocco," said the 48-year-old former Mali international. "I want to say thank you too to the people who work for the organisers and everybody who has been taking care of us."

Chelle out

With someone exhibiting such gentility, a question about that person's job prospects seems a tad gauche. But one hack just couldn't resist. And yet, Eric Chelle was simply above it all. "Every time. Every time my life is dealing with this thing," he pined. "Now is not the moment to ask that question. I prefer you to ask the question about the the game, the tournament, the players and our game project. So we stay focused on that." Spun that way, it's a fair point.

Pressure cooker

Manuel Gomandi, Eric Chelle's Tanzania counterpart, doesn't come in for that kind of fury. He gets soap suds because nobody expects anything from Tanzania including, it seems Gomandi. "I'm very realistic," confessed the 59-year-old Argentine. "Nigeria maybe have a 99% possibility of winning but you never know. What I can say is I'm sure Nigeria will not be relaxed because always there are surprises in the games."

Et voil, surprises

And just a few hours after Manuel Gomandi's morcel of optimism for his charges, along came the example. Patson Daka levelled for Zambia in the dying seconds of their Group A game against Mali. The strike may well raise the eyebrows of a fair few fans of Daka's English second division sideLeicester City.The 27-year-old has scored only once for the team since the start of the season.

Odd that

And then Prince Dube gave Zimbabwe the lead over the seven-time winners Egypt mid way through the first-half of their opening game in Group B in Agadir. But Omar Marmoush levelled in the 66th minute. And here's something.Mohamed Salahscored Egypt's winner in the dying seconds. No? Really?

Originally published on RFI