Video: Hilarious altercation in the AFCON final results in play-acting after headbutts

Asamoah Gyan looks on as Yaya Toure heads the ball

Player 1 headbutts player 2. Player 2 reacts by headbutting player 1 and falls down on the floor clutching his head. Player 1 sees this and does the exact same thing. The referee ignores all of it though.

During the final of the African Cup of Nations, the above incident is exactly what happened between Eric Bailly of Ivory Coast and John Boye of Ghana. Here the role of player 1 was played by Boye, while Bailly was player 2.

Ghana had a free-kick at the edge of the box and the Ghanaian defenders pushed forward for the set-piece. However, before the kick could be taken, Boye got in a tangle with Bailly, his marker, which was ignored by the referee.

Both the players escaped punishment, which turned out to be crucial as Bailly was booked in the first half of extra time and had he been given a yellow card for the incident, Ivory Coast would have been reduced to 10 men.

Maybe they could have taken a leaf out of Zinedine Zidane’s book.

Here is the video of the funny altercation: