Mali made a miraculous recovery to pull back from a four goal deficit and hold Angola to a 4-4 draw in the opening game of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Luanda, Angola, on Sunday.
The hosts appeared set for the best possible start when a first half double from Flavio Armado and penalties from Gilberto and Manucho had them celebrating a famous victory.
With only 16 minutes on the clock Mali looked down and out.
PHOTO: AFP
But a double from Barcelona’s Seydou Keita and contributions from Frederic Kanoute and Mustapha Yattabare gave them an improbable draw.
“This draw tasted like a defeat to me, this is one of the most bitter pills I’ve ever had to swallow in all the matches of my long career,” Angola coach Manuel Jose said. “Football in Africa is learning on the road, we have the skills but we were a little naive. It makes the next match a little more complicated. The public deserved a win.”
Angola skipper Kali said: “We have to raise our heads — I’m so sad and sorry — there’s no explanation for letting go of such a big lead. But we’ve got to give a good response in our next match.”
Mali coach Stephen Keshi, who lifted the title with Nigeria as a player in the 1990s, didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“It was a little difficult to believe we might come back,” he said. “I’ve got mixed feelings, I’m happy with a draw but upset with my team.”
This Nations Cup curtain raiser began with a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of Friday’s deadly gun attack on the Togo team coach in Cabinda.
The silence, immaculately observed by the 50,000 capacity crowd, turned to something much louder seconds after kick off when Mali goalkeeper Mahamadou Sidibe had to look lively to deal with Flavio’s shot from the left.
The Angolan striker only made the starting XI after shrugging off injury, but Keita was on the bench after missing the Eagles’ warm-up games with a thigh problem.
Angola were forced into an unscheduled change of personnel in the 22nd minute when Aderito Carvalho was stretchered off and replaced by Djalma Campos.
Keshi sent Barcelona midfielder Keita into the fray sooner than expected when Le Mans forward Modibo Maiga limped out of contention.
This was the first ever match at the 11 November Stadium built by the Chinese and ressembling a smaller version of Beijing’s Birds’ Nest.
And the “Chicks Nest” burst into life in the 35th minute when Flavio raced on to Gilberto’s angled 20m freekick from the left to put the hosts’ in front with a low powerful header.
One minute from the break Flavio got his double, another fine header set up by fullback Jose “Malbina”Alberto.
That prompted the wife of Angolan head of state Jose Eduardo dos Santos to jump off her seat and execute a very un-First Lady style jig.
Mali’s multi-million pound strikeforce, led by Sevilla’s Kanoute, had proved strangely impotent in the first half.
They looked a more purposeful force after the interval, with only Angola keeper Carlos Fernandes’ charge out of his box stopping a shot by Mali captain Mahamadou Diarra.
Gilberto then struck from the spot after he was brought down in the box by Mamadou Samassa.
The Al-Ahly midfielder proved a cool customer as he converted, but was then ordered to have a second go by Egyptian referee Essam Abdel Fatah, which he duly struck past Sidibe.
Manucho got Angola’s fourth, also from the spot after another foul on Gilberto, but then Angola crumbled.
Keita began the comeback after a scramble for the ball in the box following a mistake by Fernandes.
Then Kanoute struck with a classy header, with Keita producing a volley for his double and Yattabare grabbing a highly unlikely point for the Eagles.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
Erling Haaland on Sunday scored twice to propel Manchester City up to second in the English Premier League with a 3-1 win over AFC Bournemouth. The Cherries started the day in second thanks to the longest unbeaten run in the English top flight, but Andoni Iraola’s side were undone by the scintillating form of the Norwegian striker, who took his tally to 13 Premier League goals in 10 games. Haaland’s relentless streak is maintaining City’s title challenge as they reduced the gap to leaders Arsenal back to six points and edged one point ahead of Liverpool, who they face at the weekend. “Important
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
RSS