Zambia 1-0 Ghana
Mali 0-1 Ivory Coast
In the upset of the knockout round, Zambia bested Ghana to reach the finals for the first time since 1994, when they lost to Nigeria. This time, however, they will face Ivory Coast, who lost on penalties six years ago to Egypt in their last final.
The final will take place at 11am this Sunday, in Libreville, Gabon, on the west coast of the continent, in the Stade d'Angondje. Libreville has a population slightly smaller than that of Portland.
Ghana and Mali will face off Saturday in the consolation match, at Nuevo Estadio in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Malabo, built in the sunken hollow of a dead volcano, is not only on Bioko Island, but is also the capital of the country. Equatorial Guinea is a tiny country about the size of Massachusetts.
Ghana controlled the run of play for much of the game, but failed to capitalize on many opportunities. Case in point would be Asamoah Gyan's penalty miss in the seventh minute. But it was Emmanuel Mayuka in the 78' who won the game for Zambia with a nice shot. He received the ball with his back to the goal around the edge of the box, touched the ball to his left once before turning and burying it into the net off the far post. Ghana then went down to ten men after Derek Boateng was shown his second yellow just six minutes later, and the game was over.
Mali was dominated by Ivory Coast in the other match, but were not outclassed. Mali was able to maintain decent possession, and put themselves into good positions, but were wasteful in the final third and weren't able to threaten often. Ivory Coast, however, threatened often but were unlucky as Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure both struck the woodwork before Gervinho ran from his own half before beating Soumaila Diakite at the far post at the death of the half.
No comments:
Post a Comment