Emilio Nsue has scored the first hat-trick at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in 16 years, leading his nation, Equatorial Guinea, to an emphatic 4-2 victory over Guinea Bissau.
Nsue, who plays for the Primera Federación club CF Intercity, found the net in the 21st, 51st, and 61st minutes, completing a hat-trick in just 40 minutes at the Alassane Quatara Stadium in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
The 34-year-old who has spent the better part of his career playing as a right-back (for his club), is the oldest player to score a hat-trick in the tournament’s history.
The summary of hat-tricks at the AFCON finals
Before Thursday’s hat-trick by Nsue, 17 hat-tricks had been recorded by 16 different players at the AFCON finals with the last one occurring in 2008 when Soufiane Alloudi scored three goals in Morocco’s 5-1 victory over Namibia during the Group Stages.
Egypt stands out with five players achieving a total of six hat-tricks, a feat unmatched by any other country in the tournament.
The inaugural hat-trick in the history of the Africa Cup of Nations was accomplished by Ad-Diba, who scored all four goals for Egypt in their 4-0 triumph over Ethiopia in the 1957 final.
Hassan El-Shazly of Egypt is the sole player to have scored multiple hat-tricks at the Africa Cup of Nations, achieving this feat in 1963 and 1970.
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Remarkably, Egypt is the only team to witness two players scoring hat-tricks in the same game. In a 1963 group-stage encounter, Hassan El-Shazly and Mohammed Morsi Hussein both netted three goals each, contributing to a 6-3 victory over Nigeria.
