Oumar Diakite was the hero as hosts Ivory Coast on Saturday staged another remarkable salvage operation to reach the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals, while South Africa later joined them.
A brilliant back-heel by the substitute in added-time at the end of extra-time in Bouake gave the Elephants a 2-1 victory over Mali, who dominated much of the quarter-final and scored first.
Ivory Coast-born Nene Dorgeles put Mali ahead on 71 minutes against the host nation, who were reduced to 10 men just before halftime when Odilon Kossounou was sent off.
Photo: AFP
Another Ivorian substitute, Simon Adingra, leveled in the 90th minute to take the pulsating west African showdown into extra-time.
With the quarter-final seemingly set to be decided by a penalty shoot-out, Diakite back-heeled a drive from a teammate past Mali goalkeeper Djigui Diarra.
Diakite, who had been yellow-carded earlier, took off his shirt when celebrating, leading to a second caution followed by a red card.
Victory came at a high price as suspensions rule Diakite, Kossounou, captain Serge Aurier and Christian Kouame out of a semi-final against the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Wednesday.
“After this kind of match, there are no real things to explain, it is just emotions,” said Diakite, who plays for French Ligue 1 outfit Stade de Reims.
“My joy was so great that I forgot that I had a yellow card. It was a mistake on my part. Even if I am not there, we can do the job [reach the final],” he said. “With this goal, I think I put happiness on the faces of every Ivorian fan at the stadium. No words can describe how I’m feeling now, but I’m happy.”
The last time Ivory Coast reached the semi-finals was in 2015 in Equatorial Guinea, and they defeated the Democratic Republic of the Congo 3-1 before going on to win the tournament a second time.
Meanwhile, South Africa goalkeeper Ronwen Williams saved four penalties in a shoot-out as his country beat Cape Verde 2-1 in a shoot-out after a 0-0 draw following extra-time in Yamoussoukro.
Bryan Teixeira was the only Cape Verdean to score from the spot, while Teboho Mokoena and Mothobi Mvala netted for South Africa.
South Africa are back in the semi-finals for the first time since 2000, when they lost to then cohosts Nigeria, their opponents in Bouake on Wednesday.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS