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Algeria stun Cote d'Ivoire in thriller
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-26 09:52
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CABINDA, Angola: Algeria clawed back from the brink of elimination to stun title favorites Cote d'Ivoire 3-2 on Sunday and reach the Africa Cup of Nations semifinals.
Earlier, in Sunday's first quarterfinal, hosts Angola crashed out, losing 1-0 to World Cup-bound team Ghana, to end their dreams of winning the title on home soil.
Drama continued to the end with television replays suggesting a late shot from Cote d'Ivoiren defender Kolo Toure that found the net was wrongly judged offside by an assistant referee.
Cote d'Ivoire coach Vahid Halilhodzic was furious and distraught in equal measure.
"This is a huge disappointment, of course," said the 57-year-old Bosnian-born former Yugoslavian international.
"We were not good this evening (Sunday) and we are obliged to congratulate Algeria.
"Great teams do not let a 2-1 lead a few minutes before full-time slip like that.
"It is unacceptable. We had had opportunities to kill off the match before that and we are all really stunned. We came here with great hopes and as is always the case Cote d'Ivoire has failed to deliver.
"It is imperative that everyone assumes their responsibility for this, me to start with.
"We have five or six really good players but we lost every duel. It is not a physical problem it is a mental one. I do not have all the answers but I am ashamed with regard to how we played and apologize to the Cote d'Ivoiren public who really believed in us."
His Algerian counterpart, Rabah Saadane, had vastly different emotions.
"I am really happy. We came up with what we wanted," said Saadane. "I wasn't surprized by my team, but more by the decline of the Cote d'Ivoire side. The critics said after we beat Mali (1-0) that we only scored goals from dead-ball situations, well here we scored three goals from open play!"
AFP
