The African Cup of Nations will crown a new champion for the first time in three editions as Nigeria emerged as the favorite after ousting two-time defending champion Cameroon 2-1 in a classic quarterfinal on Sunday.
Completing a day of comebacks, Morocco clawed back into its quarterfinal in injury time before beating Maghreb rival Algeria 3-1 in extra time. The match became the first to be marred by serious crowd trouble at the tournament.
Wednesday's semifinals pit Nigeria against host Tunisia, which beat Senegal on Saturday, and Morocco against Mali.
Nigeria proved the Indomitable Lions could be dominated for the first time in 16 African Cup games when it used the superlative vision and skills of midfielder Jay-Jay Okocha and mixed it with the speed of John Utaka.
In the best match of the tournament so far, the Super Eagles recaptured some of their luster with a come-from-behind win which immediately questioned whether Cameroon's reign over Africa had come to an end.
Cameroon went ahead through Samuel Eto'o's first and only goal of the tournament.
He used his speed to latch on to a 40m pass from Geremi, outrun the defense and tap the ball under goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.
It seemed the final blow for an embattled Nigeria to surrender the tournament.
Instead, Okocha pulled the Super Eagles back with a brilliant curling free kick from 18m on the stroke of halftime. The deft execution left goalkeeper Carlos Kameni motionless as the ball glided past.
It set up the decider for Utaka.
With 17 minutes to go, much-criticized veteran Nwankwo Kanu sent Utaka through the center with the Cameroon defense near invisible. Kameni still got his fingertips to the ball, but it trickled into the net off the post for the decider.
After three losses to their neighbor in African Cup finals, this meant a lot the Super Eagles.
"It is the time of Nigeria now," Super Eagles coach Christian Chuckwu said.
"It is not surprising. Nigeria has many good players," Cameroon captain Rigobert Song said.
And it reinvigorated a campaign which opened with a loss and the expulsion of three players for indiscipline. Nigeria now has a winning streak of three going into the semifinals.
"We stuck together," Okocha said. "We have been working very hard for this."
Morocco's way to the semifinals was smoother but it still took a great escape act to get through on Sunday.
Algeria was leading 1-0 in injury time, with thousands of its fans whistling for the game to end when 19-year-old Marouane Chamakh exploited a defensive error and connected on a cross to score the equalizer from close range.
In extra time, Youssef Hadji left a defender standing on the left and fired the winner under oncoming goalkeeper Lounes Gaouaoui with seven minutes left.
Soon, the stands with Algerian fans erupted in violence, with many throwing trash and plastic seats onto the pitch.
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