Dagens Nyheter writes on the African Cup

Lots of goals and favourites who didn't deliver. But also poor goalkeeping and poor defence, uneven teams, bad pitches and a superfluity of stars. The group games in the African Cup of Nations are over. Sunday and Monday see the quarterfinals.
Recent Nations Cup tournaments have been marked by a scarcity of goals, brutal play and hopeless referees. The tournament in Ghana is an improvement offering many goal rich matches, relatively more offensive play and, at least, a few referees who seem to have really gone through the rule books this time around.

One can live with poorly kept pitches that have made organised play impossible. Worse is the enormous differences between the qualities of the teams. Sudan, Namibia and Benin will find it difficult to keep their places in the Swedish second division while Ivory Coast and Ghana have the capacity of playing in the final of the 2010 World Cup. Mali's team is a mixture of world stars like Sevilla's Kanouté and Real Madrid’s Diarra but also third and fourth class players.

The saddest thing of all is the nonchalant attitude of the super stars to the tournament. It is only on a few occasions that Cameroon’s Eto’o, Ivory Coast's Didier Drogba and Nigeria’s John Utaka have shown why they are highly rated and praised in Barcelona, Chelsea and Portsmouth respectively. The only world star who has so far lived up to expectations is Chelsea's midfield dynamo, Michael Essien, who has led his Ghanaian team as a man worthy of his million kronor weekly salary.

The defending champions, Egypt, have been impressive in the group matches – quick, strong, and well organised. They have a pair of match winners in Zaki and Zidan but it will be a surprise if a team from West Africa does not win the cup. Ivory Coast is the hottest favourite but guard your bet with Ghana.  

Göran Bolin
Dagens Nyheter (February 1st, 2008)