In that regard, this tournament already outstrips the disappointing affair in Angola two years ago that went down in history for the gun-attack on the Togo team and very little else.

The first of those moments came in Bata. Equatorial Guinea had just conceded a last-minute equaliser to Senegal when the ball was rolled square to Kily, several yards out. The right back must have been exhausted, having shuttled up and down the flank through heavy mud. But from nowhere he found a powerful shot that arced into the top corner and took the co-hosts through to the quarterfinals.

Two days later came the sequel, and it was even better, a wonderful attacking game between Gabon and Morocco.

Two goals within 36 seconds of playing time tipped the game from Morocco to the co-hosts, but then Morocco equalised with a last-minute penalty - and huge credit to the Gambian referee Bakary Gassama for having the courage to give it despite the noisy home crowd.

And then, seven minutes into injury time, Bruno Mbanangoye whipped a free kick into the top corner to give Gabon the win and cap perhaps the finest match seen in any international tournament in the past decade.

Most sides at this tournament have played with attacking intent, as though the absence of so many of the traditional powers has been a liberation.

Ghana and Ivory Coast aside, nobody here has really been burdened by expectation, and with fewer giants, there has been no reason for the mid-ranking teams to fear humiliation.

Guinea, for instance, played with great verve, took their place in the record books with a 6-1 win over Botswana that equalled the tournament record, but ended up eliminated, thanks to their 1-0 defeat in an engaging game against Mali.

Senegal were the great disappointment, undone by a forward-heavy squad that was exposed by a canny Zambia in a shambolic opening half-hour.

Defeat in that game meant they couldn't afford any more slip-ups, and so they were undone by their failure to convert a hatful of chances before finally succumbing to that Kily goal against Equatorial Guinea.

Angola, too, came with a reputation to which they struggled to live up, and Burkina Faso were oddly timid given the talent in their squad.

Sudan, with an entirely home-based squad, Tunisia, Zambia and, to a slightly lesser extent, Libya, showed the benefits of cohesive, tight-knit teams.

And then there were the two favourites. Ghana's structure, with Asamoah Gyan playing significantly in advance of the creative midfield line in their 4-2-3-1, looking to hold the ball up and lay it off to players breaking from deep, is always going to be more effective playing on the break, and that means it is hard for the team to impress against weaker opponents.

But they did enough to qualify, as did Ivory Coast with a new, safety-first approach brought on by the repeated failures of the past three tournaments.

Only the knockout stages will tell us whether there is a team here with the quality of, say, Egypt in 2008 or Cameroon in 2000, but if nothing else, this tournament has restored the fun to the Nations Cup. After Angola, that has come as a great relief.