Ivory Coast reach Africa Cup finals

Defending champions Egypt on the brink of elimination.

JOHANNESBURG:

While Ivory Coast secured a place at the finals of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, defending champions Egypt suffer the threat of elimination.

Ivory Coast triumphed 6-2 in Benin with Didier Drogba and Gervais ‘Gervinho’ Kouassi bagging a brace each to take an unassailable eight-point lead in their section. The finalists could have dreamt they would score six in Cotonou having won only 2-1 when the countries met three months ago, but a great start saw them gallop into a three-goal led with 31 minutes gone.

Stephane Sessegnon struck twice to leave the game to offer Benin hope only for Drogba and Gervinho to score a second goal each before Wilfried Bony completed the rout four minutes from full-time.

Egypt in trouble

Meanwhile, Egypt, the record seven-time title holders could only draw 0-0 with South Africa in a tense Cairo qualifier that produced few clear-cut scoring chances for teams ranked third and fourth respectively in the continent.

Although South Africa spent more time defending than attacking, they created the best chances but Katlego Mphela and Tlou Segolela failed to score. South Africa lead Group G with eight points followed by Niger (six), Sierra Leone (five) and Egypt (two) with two rounds to be played in September and October.

Meanwhile, Issam Jemaa scored a hat-trick as Tunisia thumped 10-man Chad 5-0 in Group K and the other goals in Sousse came from Aymen Abdennour and Oussama Darragi against opponents who had Didier Mbayi sent-off just before half-time.

In other matches, Guinea trounced Madagascar 4-1 in Conakry to go three points clear of Nigeria in Group B while Angola kept alive their slender Group J hopes with a 1-0 victory over Kenya in Luanda thanks to a ‘Manucho’ goal. Liberia edged Group A leaders Cape Verde Islands 1-0 for their first win of the competition and the Central African Republic joined Morocco at the summit of Group D with a 2-1 win against Tanzania in Bangui.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2011.