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The Equatorial Guinea national football team, nicknamed ''Nzalang Nacional'', is the national team of Equatorial Guinea and is controlled by the Federación Ecuatoguineana de Fútbol. It is a member of Confederation of African Football (CAF). Though Equatorial Guinea has traditionally been one of the lowest ranked teams in Africa, the recent influx of Spanish-born players of Equatoguinean heritage has strengthened the national team and resulted in some solid performances. They qualified as co-hosts for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. The hosting of the tournament lead to the construction of two new football stadia in the country: Estadio de Bata in Bata on the mainland, and Estadio de Malabo in Malabo. The national team managed a creditable fourth place at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, which also organized. ==History== Equatorial Guinea played its first match on 23 May 1975 against China in a friendly and lost . They did not play another game until entering the 1985 UDEAC Cup in December 1985. They were drawn in a group against the hosts Congo and Central African Republic. They lost to the Congo on 9 December and then earned their first draw by drawing against the Central African Republic on 14 December. On 16 December they played a play-off for fifth place against Chad, and lost on penalties after a draw.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Equatorial Guinea - List of International Matches )〕 Equatorial Guinea would come in fourth in the 1987 UDEAC Cup, losing on penalties in the third place match to Gabon, even though they only scored one goal throughout the tournament in a draw against Chad. They also drew against Cameroon. On their next try, they got sixth place after losing on penalties against the Central African Republic. The next time Equatorial Guinea played the Central African Republic, in 1999, they won, . It was Equatorial Guinea's first win.〔 In the late 2000s, their Federación Ecuatoguineana de Fútbol along with the Fédération Gabonaise de Football announced a bid to host the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, against bids from other African nations including Angola, Libya and Nigeria. Equatorial Guinea and Gabon won the right to host the games, and two new stadiums were built in Equatorial Guinea: Estadio de Bata in Bata and Nuevo Estadio de Malabo in Malabo.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Nuevo Estadio de Malabo )〕 The first game in the 2012 African Cup of Nations was Equatorial Guinea's first in a major international tournament, and resulted in a historic win over Libya 21 January 2012 in the opening game of the tournament. An 87th-minute strike from former Real Madrid winger Javier Balboa earned the victory. In the next game they secured qualification to the quarter-finals by beating Senegal ,〔(BBC Sport – Africa Cup of Nations: Equatorial Guinea in quarters as Senegal crash out ) 25 January 2012. Accessed 1 February 2011〕 and finished second in their group after losing to Zambia.〔(BBC Sport – Africa Cup of Nations: Zambia book quarter-final slot ) 29 January 2012. Accessed 1 February 2011〕 They progressed to the quarter finals were they were eliminated by the tournament's runners-up Ivory Coast after losing to ''The Elephants'' 3-0 thanks to goals from Didier Drogba and Yaya Touré.〔(Ivory Coast 3 - 0 Equatorial Guinea ) 4 February 2012. Accessed 14 February 2011〕 Various national side players were praised due to their performances in the tournament among these players were Javier Balboa, Randy, Ben Konaté and Rui, the latter was part of the Team of the tournament.〔(Orange CAN 2012 Best XI ) 12 February 2012. Accessed 14 February 2011〕 Three years later, Equatorial Guinea organized again African Cup of Nations. On this occasion, to replace Morocco, which was the original host. In the opener, drew 1-1 against , with Emilio Nsue opening the scoring. In the second game, they came back to tie, being now a 0-0 against , who were the runners-up of the previous edition. With these two results, the Nzalang Nacional had to win to his classic rival in the third match to obtain the qualification to the quarterfinals. Then, Equatorial Guinea won by 2-0 with goals from Javier Balboa (penalty kick) and Ibán. Group A's runner-up, the Equatoguinean national team defeated 2-1 to with two goals from Javier Balboa, the first being a penalty kick in the final moments of regular time and the second in the extra time. In the semifinal they lost 0-3 to while in the match for third place drew 0-0 against and lost to them 2-4 on penalties, finishing the tournament in fourth place, being its best international participation and reaching a historical 49th position of the FIFA World Rankings. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Equatorial Guinea national football team」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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