Angola and World Cup qualifiers Algeria joined holders Egypt and Ivory Coast in the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals on Monday.
A goalless draw, played out to another 50,000 capacity crowd at Luanda’s 11 November stadium, put both teams into the last eight mix, at the expense of Mali and Malawi.
While the hosts and the Desert Foxes are still in contention, day nine proved the end of the road for Chelsea’s star midfielder Michael Essien.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Ghana’s best player hobbled out of contention for yesterday’s make or break Group B date with Burkina Faso after picking up a knee injury in training over the weekend.
This latest setback represented a cruel blow not only to Ghana, who are already bereft of a raft of first team players, and also Essien, who had just returned to fitness after an injury he picked up playing for his club in the Champions League last month.
Essien’s 2010 Nations Cup is over and he is due to return to Stamford Bridge for treatment, leaving Ghana with a tough job on their hands as they must defeat Burkina Faso to avoid a first round KO.
Angola finished top of Group A with five points after sharing the spoils with Algeria, who took the runners-up spot by dint of their head-to-head record with Mali.
Mali inflicted a 3-1 defeat on Malawi up in Cabinda, but the result was rendered meaningless by the draw in Luanda, leaving Mali’s 2007 Africa player of the year Frederic Kanoute distraught.
“I can’t find the words to describe how upset I am,” said Sevilla, who was the first non-Africa-born player to win the award. “It really hurts me that after we were knocked out in 2008 we really wanted to do well here. For my last appearance in this competition I wanted to go as far as possible.”
Angola manager Manuel Jose was in a far happier frame of mind after overseeing the Black Antelope’s best ever first round showing in the Nations Cup.
Monday’s game started at a breathless pace but after the break degenerated into a cagey affair with both sides desperate not to make a mistake which could scupper their Cup campaign.
Angola now progress to face the runners-up of Group B — either Ivory Coast, Ghana or Burkina Faso, in their Luanda fortress on Sunday, with Algeria taking on the Group B winners in Cabinda the same day.
“We were nervous in the first half, and had a great chance but couldn’t score,” Jose said. “Then we heard at half time that Mali were leading in Cabinda so in the second half we tried to minimize the risk of defeat. It wasn’t good for the fans, but we had to avoid risks .Our main objective was to qualify.”
He said the absence of key players Flavio and Dede and the suspended Stelvio had had a major bearing on the game.
“The return of players like Flavio will be fundamental to us. Our task now is to get them back for the quarter-final.”
Algeria coach Rabah Saadane railed at a suggestion from a Mali reporter at the post-match press conference that the draw had been rigged at Mali’s expense.
“Don’t come out with that sort of question, I don’t accept at all that this was a fixed match and that we had some sort of agreement with the Angolan team to play for a draw,” said Saadane, who was assistant coach at the 1982 World Cup when Algeria were victims of the infamous draw between Austria and the then West Germany which saw those two neighbors progress to the second round at their expense. “It’s part of soccer, you have to manage a match and look for ways of avoiding defeat.”
The New Taipei Kings claimed the inaugural Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) championship on Sunday, defeating the Kaohsiung FamilyMart Aquas 108-89 in the final. Playing at home, the Kings pulled ahead with Jeremy Lin’s (林書豪) clutch three-pointers, securing their victory over the Aquas in the TPBL final. The Kings came out strong in the first quarter, dominating to build a 35-18 lead. By halftime, they had stretched their advantage to 61-38. In the third quarter, the Aquas narrowed the deficit to 12 points, but Lin stepped up, sinking several tough three- pointers to extend the lead. In the final quarter, the Kings pushed the
In an unlikely Ethiopian outpost of one the most French of pastimes, four men are leaning over their petanque balls, arguing over who is winning. Petanque, the bowling game also known as boules, is more readily associated with French village squares where locals launch metal balls at a jack while enjoying an afternoon drink, but for decades, it has also been a beloved pastime for members of a club near the iconic Meskel Square in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It was founded in the early 20th century to cater to French railway workers, who built a line connecting Addis Ababa
Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Australian teenager Maya Joint on Tuesday eased into the Eastbourne Open quarter-finals in England as Hsieh prepares for the Wimbledon Championships next week. Four-time Wimbledon women’s doubles champion Hsieh and 19-year-old Joint fired two aces and converted five of eight break points to defeat Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Poland’s Katarzyna Piter 6-3, 6-3 in 58 minutes on the grass court. Hsieh and Joint are today to face fourth seeds Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who advanced on Monday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Quinn Gleason of the US and
BEAT THE HEAT: A brutal heat wave in the US has made cooling breaks standard. Dortmund’s coach said the weather could shape the destiny of the tournament Chelsea on Tuesday beat Esperance of Tunisia 3-0 to set up a FIFA Club World Cup last-16 tie against SL Benfica, who earlier defeated Bayern Munich 1-0, as furnace-link heat and the threat of thunder and lightning wreak havoc at the tournament. Elsewhere, minnows Auckland City claimed a memorable draw against Boca Juniors, while Los Angeles bowed out of the tournament with a stalemate against Flamengo. In Charlotte, Andreas Schjelderup scored the only goal for Benfica in their Group C clash with Bayern in front of 33,287 fans, finishing first-time from a cutback by his fellow Norwegian Fredrik Aursnes in the 13th
RSS