Algeria and Ghana are one step away from the Africa Cup of Nations final after stunning favorites Ivory Coast and hosts Angola respectively on Sunday.
Ivory Coast were sent packing by a 3-2 extra-time loss to fellow World Cup qualifiers Algeria in the second quarter-final up in the northern province of Cabinda.
The Desert Foxes fell 2-1 behind on 89 minutes to a brilliant Abdulkader Keita goal, only for Rangers defender Madjid Bougherra to level in stoppage-time and unmarked substitute Hamer Bouazza headed a 92nd-minute far-post winner.
PHOTO: AFP
Drama continued to the end with television replays suggesting a late shot from Ivorian defender Kolo Toure that found the net was wrongly judged offside by an assistant referee.
Didier Drogba’s Elephants had raced into a fourth-minute lead when Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou scored after a goalmouth scramble with Germany-based Karim Matmour leveling on 40 minutes.
Algeria looked to be heading home early after opening their Cup campaign with a poor 3-0 loss to Malawi, but a win over Mali and a goalless draw against Angola put them into the last eight, and now they have the final in their sights.
“This victory is for Algeria, some people won’t be able to speak now, we’ve silenced our critics and proved that we are worthy World Cup finalists,” 27-year-old Bougherra said.
Earlier, in Sunday’s first quarter-final, Angola crashed out, losing 1-0 to another World Cup-bound team, Ghana, to end their dreams of winning the title on home soil.
A minute’s silence preceded Angola’s game, held in memory of the victims of the Haiti earthquake and for the father of Angola coach Manuel Jose, who died on Sunday morning in Portugal.
Angola welcomed back their three-goal hero Flavio, but it was Ghana, missing a raft of top players, who shot into a 16th-minute lead thanks to Asamoah Gyan.
Hard as Angola tried they were unable to cancel that out, although former Manchester United and Hull City striker Manucho certainly had his chances.
Ghana’s Serbian coach Milovan Rajevic said: “Of course, we are missing players like [Michael] Essien, [Stephen] Appiah and Anthony Annan. We have had to call up a lot of new players, but what I have here is a team with a very competitive spirit and a competitive style of play. There is an excellent atmosphere in our team, which is very important.”
“I have to leave for Portugal now to attend the funeral of my father, but I am leaving proud to be coach of this team,” Jose told a hushed post-match press conference. “They finish in this competition with their heads held high. Ghana took their first chance to score and we did everything we could to get a goal ourselves. We had a couple of chances, but we didn’t have the luck, they [Ghana] did.”
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