Not since 1982 has there been a World Cup knockout stage without an African side, but where did it all go wrong for the continent's quintet?
COMMENT By Solace Chukwu
In one of the most superb opening lines in all of literature, Russian writer Leo Tolstoy remarks, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
He may well have been remarking upon Africa's showing at the World Cup almost a 150 years later: Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia and Senegal all have cause for regret after their tragic Group Stage exits, but while the misery is the same, the particulars are not.