Nigeria vs Ivory Coast live updates: Africa Cup of Nations final team news, line-ups and predictions

Let’s look back now to the opening night of AFCON, and let Simon Hughes take it away…

Sometimes it is impossible to express the things you have witnessed and do it justice. No amount of film, no number of photographs and maybe no number of words can recreate energy, certainly not the energy on the road from Abidjan to Ebimpe, where it is a challenge to know where you really are.

In some ways, I’d like to thank the Confederation of African Football for its incompetence and, therefore, its outstanding contribution to the whole day. We only see Africa when bad things happen. If you follow the news, you’ll know about extremist attacks in Tunisia, riots in Burkina Faso and revolutions in Libya — all those things are real. But you miss the bigger picture.

Ivory Coast has not hosted the Africa Cup of Nations for 40 years. Since then, the country has experienced two civil wars, wiping an older generation from the face of the continent’s red earth.

Not everyone is benefiting, but the country is now booming economically. People are feeling more optimistic. Everyone loves football. Everyone seems to think Ivory Coast will become champions for a third time. Everyone wants to party.