TheCable

Bony’s double seals semifinal spot for the Elephants

Wilfried Bony scored twice and Gervinho added a late third to take Cote d’Ivoire into the semi-finals of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with a 3-1 win over Algeria.

The Manchester City forward headed the Elephants in front from a right-wing cross by Max Gradel in the 26th minute.

Tournament favourites and Africa top ranked team Algeria equalised six minutes into the second half from Hilal Soudani against the run of play and he almost put his side ahead when he forced goalkeeper Sylvain Gbohouo into a brilliant save.

Bony then grabbed a second heading in a Yaya Toure’s free-kick and Gervinho grabbed a late third that secured the win for the 1992 champions who will now face DR Congo in the semifinal on Wednesday.

Line-up

Ivory Coast: Gbohouo, Aurier, Kanon, K. Toure, Bailly, Tiene (Doukoure 67’), Y. Toure, Serey Dié, Gradel, Bony (Tallo 90’), Gervinho

Algeria: M’Bolhi – Mandi, Bougherra, Medjani, Ghoulam – Feghouli, Taïder, Bentaleb, Mahrez (Belfodil 71’), Brahimi, Soudani (Slimani 71’)

Ghana zoom past Guinea into last-four

Ghana brushed aside the challenge of Guinea to cruise into the semifinals of the 2015 Orange Africa Cup of Nations with a 3-0 win in a quarterfinal match at the Estadio De Malabo on Sunday night.

The Black Stars took the lead in just four minutes of play when Christian Atsu scored a back heeled pass from Andre Ayew beyond the Guinean keeper.

Guinea almost equalised six minutes later but Ibrahima Traore couldn’t steer the ball into the net as it hit the side of the net instead.

In the 38th minute, Guinea almost went 2-0 down when Ghana hit them on the counter as Asamoah Gyan broke forward but his effort from just inside the box was saved by Naby Yattara in goal for the Syli National.

A minute to the end of first half, Ghana doubled their lead after a defensive blunder allowed Kwesi Appiah to find himself in a one-on-one with the keeper. He was never going to miss in that situation as he calmly found the back of the net.

The second half got heated with lots of dangerous tackles from the Guineans.

The match was put beyond them in the 61st minute when Atsu scored Ghana’s third and his second with a well taken goal that zoomed past the keeper into the top corner of the net.

Five yellow cards and a red card, all in the books of the Guinean team and the latter was showed to their keeper who took out Gyan in a rugby-like tackle in the 4th minute of extra time.

The Black Stars will play hosts Equatorial Guinea in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Kwesi Appiah

Line-up

Ghana: Razak Braimah, Harrison Afful, John Boye, Baba Rahman, Jonathan Mensah, Mubarak Wakaso, Afriyie Acquah (Mohammed Rabiu 85’), Christian Atsu (Frank Acheampong 79’), Andre Ayew, Asamoah Gyan, Kwesi Appiah

Guinea: Naby Yattara, Baissama Sankoh, Djibril Tamsir Paye, Fode Camara, Abdoulaye Cisse, Aboubacar Fofana, Kevin Constant (Naby Keita 56’), Ibrahima Conte, Ibrahima Traoré, Idrissa Sylla (Mohamed Yattara 45’), Abdoul Razzagui Camara (Francois Kamano 81’)

AFCON NEWS!

Grant: We are getting better

Ghana coach, Avram Grant, believes the Black Stars are improving with every AFCON 2015 games.

Ghana beat Guinea 3-0 in Sunday’s quarterfinal match to set up a semifinal with host Equatorial Guinea. And Grant expects a better performance from his team against the host.

“The team showed a good attitude today and has a lot of qualities. It’s the most important. Each of our games has been better than the previous one since the beginning of the tournament and it’s my greatest satisfaction,” Grant said.

“We played very well in this quarter-final against a very good team. We watched Equatorial Guinea’s game against Tunisia on Saturday. We are going to focus on them now, but remain before all focused on ourselves.

“It’s always tricky to play the host country in front of their fans but each game is a challenge.”

Ghana lost their opening group game to Senegal, but then beat Algeria and South Africa to reach the knockouts.

Better side won, says Guinea coach

Guinea coach, Michel Dussuyer, believes his side simply lost to a better team after the 3-0 loss to Ghana in the quarterfinals.

Christian Atsu scored twice and Kwesi Appiah got the other goal in an impressive and cohesive Ghana display acknowledged by Dussuyer.

“We fell against a better side. We conceded a goal right at the start, which immediately hit at our confidence, and cherry on the cake we concede this second goal before the break and it became very difficult against such a talented team,” he said.

“In Guinea we have the tendency to see ourselves more beautiful than we are. We didn’t manage to up our game level. We are leaving the AFCON with some regret but we mustn’t forget the road travelled until today.

“Ghana are impressive and are always there in the big occasions. Don’t say that Guinea were not good. That’s Ghana who were good.”