Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "List of association football rivalries" in English language version.
The victory has an added meaning, beyond the qualification because we gave great joy to our people. For them, beating Gabon is as if we had already won the Africa Cup of Nations. It is a very strong rivalry and it was noticeable in the atmosphere before and, of course, after the match. Many children have been able to take pride in their country, after enduring with the mockery of other Gabonese kids for a long time.
After playing against Morocco, I played a tie with Gabon. And in the weeks before the match, people explained to me the history of Equatorial Guinea relations with Gabon. They told me that they are two neighboring countries, and that there are disputed territories, a controversy aggravated by the suspicion that there is oil there. They accused Gabon of illegally occupying Equatoguinean territory. And we had to play against them in a qualifier for the Olympic Games. By going to play, you were almost doing a state mission. Equatoguineans had gone to Gabon, for many years, to do the worst and lowest paid jobs. And winning a match on their field was vindicating the role of the Equatoguineans. It was quite a challenge...
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