The heavily betted favourites for this year's African Cup of Nations have been knocked out by Nigeria in quarter finals. The two time African champions have booked place alongside Mali in the semi-finals. Ghana will be the favourites in the other semi-final as they will meet Burkina Faso, who managed to see off Togo in extra time.
Nigeria and Ivory Coast were content with trying long range efforts in the beginning, with Victor Moses probably being the most dangerous, stinging Boubacar Barry's hands a couple of times. Emmanuel Emenike had the first real chance after being put through by Brown Ideye, but the Spartak Moscow striker fired hopelessly wide.
The first half was really rather bogged down by numerous free-kicks, not unsurprisingly considering the rest of the tournament. But it was one of these free-kicks that led to the opening goal two minutes before half-time. John Obi Mikel laid his free-kick off to Emenike and his blast from 30-yards was flapped at by Barry and somehow beat him, giving Nigeria the lead with Emenike's third goal of the tournament.
Ivory Coast began the second half much better and were level five minutes into the half. It came from another free-kick as Drogba whipped the ball in for Cheick Tiote to head home with nobody anywhere near him to challenge the Newcastle man. It took a while for Nigeria to get going in the second period and Vincent Enyeama was needed to stop Yaya Toure from making it 2-1.
Anything in the opposition third for Nigeria was being created by Moses but he was nowhere to be seen when Nigeria re-took the lead with 12-minutes remaining. Sunday Mba picked the ball up an ran some 60-yards with it before his deflected shot fired over Barry and into the net. Efe Ambrose prevented Yaya Toure from scoring from a second glorious chance as Nigeria held off Ivory Coast to go through to the final four.
There were slight worries for how much football would actually be played between Burkina Faso and Togo. The pair were playing on the beachy Nelspruit pitch, despite the Togolese claiming it was still better than any pitch in Lomé. As for Burkina Faso, the question was posed as for who could score for them with top striker Alain Traore out of the tournament.
It took until nearly 20-minutes before there was a shot on target, this came from Jonathan Pitroipa but his effort was blocked. Floyd Ayite then had a glorious to score at the other end when Serge Gakpe pulled the ball back for him, only for Ayite to harmlessly scuff his shot. The remainder of the first half was largely covered by decent crosses that wasn't met by the strikers.
Togo came close to scoring in the early minutes of the second half but were denied by Saidou Panandetiguiri goal line clearance. Pitroipa and Emmanuel Adebayor both looked a little dangerous in another half that was filled with set pieces and wasted service.
The game fell into extra time and Burkina Faso seemed to grow and Abdul Razak was denied by a smart save. But the game was won in the depths of the first half when a set piece was finally taken advantage of; Charles Kabore's corner was headed home via the underside of the crossbar by Pitroipa. Togo didn't really make an effort to equalise and it perhaps surprising to note that Burkina Faso have only conceded one goal in the tournament as they now prepare for the semi-finals.
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