Sunday, 5 February 2012

2012 ACN: Quarter Finals

Zambia found it relatively against Sudan to place themselves into the semi-finals. 22-year-old Stophira Sunzu put Zambia ahead after 14-minutes. Christopher Katongo has probably been Zambia's best player of the tournament so far and he scored their second on 65-minutes, a minute after Ali Idris Farah received a red card for Sudan. The win was ensured five minutes from time with James Chamanga scoring Zambia's third.

Co-hosts Equatorial Guinea couldn't produce another shock over favourites Ivory Coast. Didier Drogba did miss have a first half penalty saved before he took full advantage of a defensive error to give Ivory Coast the lead ten minutes before half-time. Drogba was on the score-sheet again on 68-minutes with Manchester City's Yaya Toure scoring a fantastic free-kick to make it 3-0 with ten minutes left.

The other co- hosts Gabon suffered major heart-break at the hands of Mali. The dream looked like it was going to come true when Eric Mouloungui put them ahead nine minutes into the second half. But Cheick Diabate rescued Mali six minutes from time. Abdoulaye Maiga then received a red card a minute later to force Mali to ten men for the extra time period. Gabon couldn't capitalise and it went to the dreaded penalty shoot-out. The penalties went just as close with Mali winning it 5-4 to scrape through.  

The final quarter-final also went into the extra period as Ghana faced Tunisia. Jon Mensah came back from suspension and put Ghana ahead after just eight minutes. Evian's Saber Khelifa equalised four minutes before half-time and extra time ensured. But Andre Ayew scored dead on 100-minutes to put Ghana into the semi-finals.    

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