In a rather unusual fashion, Ivory Coast goalkeeper Badra Ali Sangare caused his own team a goal after a horrendous blunder right at the goal mouth.
Africa Cup of Nations favourites Ivory Coast drew with Sierra Leone late on in barely believable circumstances on Sunday night, January 16th.
Sangare was forced off injured after conceding a bizarre goal deep into second-half stoppage time. Sangare mistakenly dropped the ball for the Ivorian's opponents to equalise at the death at the Japoma Stadium in Cameroon.
The Blunder:
There were only minutes left when Sangare came out to collect a ball headed back to him by his own defender.
The keeper had to dive to gather it however to prevent Ivory Coast conceding a late corner. But while diving, Sangare's right knee seemed to dig into the dry turf and he flipped over and lost control of the ball, fumbling it goalwards to Steven Caulker.
Centre-back Caulker then squared across goal for Alhaji Kamara who was able to fire home from close range to make it 2-2. Sangare couldn't bring himself to his feet due to his injury and watched on in anguish as Kamara scored.
The Ivorian shot-stopper was down on the pitch in discomfort for several minutes after his awkward collision with the pitch and eventually had to be stretchered off.
Aurier Goes Between the Posts:
With all five substitutes having been made by Ivory Coast, captain and former Tottenham defender Serge Aurier stepped in goal for the final few moments of the match.
He was not required to make a save with Sierra Leone not having enough time to take advantage of their one-man advantage, the game ending 2-2.
The Leone Stars now have two points from two games after also surprising Algeria in their opening Group E match, while Les Elephants have four points after beating Equatorial Guinea on match-day one.
Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe had put Ivory Coast 2-1 up against Sierra Leone after Musa Noah Kamara had cancelled out an opener from Ajax striker Sebastien Haller, who used to play for West Ham.
But Sangare's unfortunate and strange error that led to the own goal stopped the Ivorians from making it two wins from two. The full extent of the Uthongathi FC keeper's injury currently remains unclear.
Ivory Coast's final Group E match sees them take on Algeria on Thursday January 20th. There is in the meantime likely to be plenty of debate around the state of the pitch that Ivory Coast played Sierra Leone on, which appeared treacherous.