Best game

Gabon 3 Morocco 2

Not just the best game of the tournament but arguably the best game – in terms of drama and quality – at any major tournament since the Czech Republic beat Holland 3-2 at Euro 2004. Houssine Kharja had given Morocco a half-time lead but the introduction of the aerial prowess of Daniel Cousin turned the game Gabon's way. Gabon attacked in great waves, both with long balls and with sweeping crosses, blow after blow landing until Morocco finally succumbed with 13 minutes remaining. Yet another cross was only half-cleared and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 15 yards out, smashed in an emphatic volley.

Fans poured from the stands on to the running track around the pitch. In the VIP area, Sylvia Bongo, the president's wife, stood, arms aloft, in celebration. It took more than two minutes for the game to restart, but 36 seconds after it did, Aubameyang crossed, Cousin turned sharply and tucked a shot between Mehdi Benatia's legs and in off the post. The celebrations reached an unimaginable pitch of intensity.

But there was more. Morocco, somehow, rallied. In the final minute, Belhanda shot, the ball striking the thigh of Charly Moussono and cannoning on to his hand. Kharja calmly sent Didier Ovono the wrong way from the spot. Gabon resumed the assault. Morocco wasted time. In the sixth added minute, Benatia clattered through the back of André Poko on the left corner of the box. It was a crude, nonsensical foul, likely only to cause injury and put his side under pressure. Poko had to go off, delaying the free-kick. Bruno Mbanangoyé had almost two minutes to measure his shot, which he delivered perfectly, whipping it over the wall and into the top left corner. On the touchline Gernot Rohr, the impassive coach of Gabon, allowed himself a gentle smile, stretching out a hand and urging his players to calm down. There was nothing calm about the writhing yellow shirts in the stand, nor in the president's box where Ali Bongo waved maniacally.

Worst losers

Angola

There was something unpleasantly arrogant about Angola from the start, almost as though they assumed a place in the quarter-final was theirs by right. All four of their goals were the result of defensive errors (albeit two of them finished superbly by Manucho), and when they went down limply to an Ivory Coast second string in their final group game, Sudan's win over Burkina Faso meant they were out. Angolan riot police – on secondment in Malabo for the duration of the tournament – then prevented players from speaking to the media in the mixed zone afterwards and, when an Angolan TV journalist protested, he was told that if he showed footage of the police line in the mixed zone, he would be punished when he got home.

Biggest disappointment

Senegal

Burkina Faso, with Jonathan Pitroipa, Alain Traoré and Bakary Koné, should have been better than they were, and seemed weirdly defeatist from the off, and Morocco performed their habitual trick of looking quite good and not winning games. But the biggest let-down, without doubt, were Senegal, whose vaunted forward line couldn't make up for failings elsewhere. In effect, their tournament was ended in the first 21 minutes as they conceded twice to Zambia, picked off on the break by a team most had underestimated. Although they pulled one back in the second half, an opening defeat left them vulnerable to the sort of bad luck that undid them against Equatorial Guinea.

Best non-Zambian fairytale moment

Kily Alvarez's goal

He's a fourth-flight Spanish right-back, playing against one of the tournament favourites, a side packed with players from top European clubs. He ploughed up and down the right flank through heavy rain and thick mud for 94 minutes. Senegal had just scored a last-minute equaliser, ending the stubborn Equatoguinean resistance. Then the ball fell to him 25 yards out. Kily had space and he struck it powerfully, the ball arcing slightly into the top corner: 2-1 and the co-hosts were in the quarter-final.

Most significant on-pitch difference from Angola 2010

Direct free-kicks scored: 5-0

There were no direct free-kicks scored in Angola, with a welter of goalkeeping errors that added to the general gloom of a dismal tournament. Here the goalkeeping was generally unremarkable and five players bent in direct free-kicks: Alain Traoré, Asamoah Gyan, Yaya Touré, Bruno Mbanangoyé and Ibrahima Traoré. Now maybe it's just that in both aspects players have suddenly improved. Or it's that the Jabulani ball used in Angola and subsequently at the World Cup, was a disaster and that the Comoequa, a version of the tango 12 that will be used at the Euros, is a ball that actually works, that can be controlled by top players and doesn't drift and swoop like a drunken swallow.

Biggest other positive

The refereeing

Some of the tackling was probably a little robust for some tastes, but the refereeing here was generally excellent. The only major point of controversy coming in Senegal's defeat to Equatorial Guinea when the Sudanese official Khalid Abdel Rahman declined to award Senegal a penalty for a trip by Laurence Doe on Issiar Dia with the score at 0-0; had that been awarded and scored, then Senegal might have lived up to the early expectations. Diving and time-wasting were – with a couple of exceptions – notable by their absence, while the Gambian official Bakary Gassama deserves particular credit for having the courage to give a borderline penalty to Morocco in the last minute of their game against Gabon, despite the passionate home support.

Biggest negative

Empty stadiums

Ticket prices didn't help. Five thousand francs (£6) for a ticket when, according to EG Watch, 70% of the population of Equatorial Guinea lives on under 1,000 francs a day, is clearly too much. Releasing free tickets only at the last minute was too little too late. Another issue is that neither Equatorial Guinea nor Gabon have strong league structures so there is little culture of going to matches. But empty stadiums have been a feature of Africa Cup of Nations for years. A general lack of disposable income is clearly a factor but it's probably also the case that the popularity of European football has made the television in the bar a default.

Team of the tournament

(4-3-3): Mweene (Zam); Mouele (Gab), Bamba (IC), Himoonde (Zam), Tiéné (IC); Y Touré (IC), Belhanda (Mor), Kharja (Mor); A Ayew (Gha), Aubameyang (Gab), Kalaba (Zam)