The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Morocco on Tuesday both qualified for the African Cup of Nations quarter-finals, leaving high-profile casualties in their wake.
The DR Congo finished top of the standings after beating Togo 3-1 in Port Gentil, while Morocco eliminated holders Ivory Coast with a 1-0 victory in Oyem, Gabon.
Ivory Coast’s exit adds to the earlier shock elimination of hosts Gabon and pre-tournament favorites Algeria, while Togo finished last in Group C, bringing down the curtain on the participation of Emmanuel Adebayor and record-breaking coach Claude Le Roy.
Photo: AFP
Ivory Coast departed with just two points, with veteran Salomon Kalou announcing his retirement from international soccer afterward and coach Michel Dussuyer suggesting his future is far from secure.
“For now, I am extremely disappointed, because we have not met our objectives. Our ambition was to get past this first round and go on and keep our title. The night is going to be difficult. Wait till tomorrow,” Dussuver told reporters.
Rachid Alioui scored a spectacular winner from 35m to secure progress for Morocco, whose coach Herve Renard took Ivory Coast to their title two years ago.
Alioui, 24, who plays for Nimes in the French second division, picked up the ball, spotted the goalkeeper off his line and masterfully curled his shot into the top corner.
Junior Kabananga scored his third goal of the tournament to give the DR Congo the halftime lead and they added two more through Ndombe Mubele and Paul-Jose Mpoku, while Kodjo Laba pulled one back for Togo.
Kabananga has now scored in all three Group C games, his latest goal coming as he ran on to a superb defense-splitting pass from Newcastle United’s Chancel Mbemba just before the half hour.
Togo’s failure to qualify marked only the second time in eight tournaments that Le Roy, who has been to more Africa Cup of Nations tournaments than any other coach, had failed to place a team in the last eight.
It could also have been the last international for Adebayor, their talismanic captain, who was denied a consolation goal in stoppage time when Merveille Bope cleared off the line.
“I am going now to think about whether I continue, but I feel like I’m the captain of the boat and I’m not sure whether I should climb out yet,” Adebayor said.
After the final whistle, the DR Congo formed an honor guard to applaud him off the field.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier