Algeria stun Nations Cup favourites Ivory Coast in thriller

Algeria clawed back from the brink of elimination to stun title favourites Ivory Coast 3-2 on Sunday and reach the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals.

The winners fell 2-1 behind on 89 minutes to a brilliant Abdulkader Keita goal only for Madjid Bougherra to level in stoppage time and unmarked substitute Hamer Bouazza headed a 92nd-minute far-post winner.

Drama continued to the end with television replays suggesting a late shot from Ivorian defender Kolo Toure that found the net was wrongly judged offside by an assistant referee.

Ivory Coast 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 Ivory Coast 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 apologise to the Ivorian public who really believed in us.”

His Algerian counterpart Rabah Saadane had evidently vastly different emotions.

“I am really happy. We came up with what we wanted,” said Saadane.

“I wasn’t surprised by my team, but more by the decline of the Ivory Coast 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!”

Victory for Algeria sets up the prospect of a last-four showdown with bitter rivals Egypt, who they deprived of a place at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after a play-off.

Defending champons Egypt face four-time winners Cameroon on Monday in a clash of giants, but the teams will struggle to match the drama of this encounter.

As the match kicked off amid steamy evening conditions in this oil-rich northern Angola enclave the chief concern of Ivory Coast coach Vahid Halilhodzic was rustiness with their last match nine days ago.

Algeria had a point to prove after accusations they and Angola had ‘fixed’ a goalless Group A draw in Luanda to ensure both qualified at the expense of Mali.

But if the Ivorians were rusty it did not show on four minutes as they reacted quickest in a goalmouth scramble and Salomon Kalou struck the ball past goalkeeper Faouzi Chaouchi to give the west Africans a perfect start.

Early attacking traffic was heading largely toward the goal of the white-kit Algerians and Rafik Halliche was lucky to escape unpunished when he fouled Didier Drogba inside the area and Ivory Coast should have been awarded a penalty.

Algeria were gradually showing more confidence and coming at their opponents and after coming close a few times, the north Africans deservedly equalised as half-time approached.

A lofted pass toward the Ivorian penalty area missed friend and foe and fell invitingly for Karim Matmour from Borussia Moenchengladbach, who left Boubacar Barry helpless with a shot that flew in off a post.

A fascinating see-saw struggle continued to offer scoring chances at each end with Drogba narrowly failing to reach a Kalou crossed and Barry foiling Matmour when he broke through and had only the goalkeeper to beat.

But the miss of the second half came five minutes from full-time when Kouassi ‘Gervinho’ Yao burst clear when Bougherra failed to intercept a pass only to blaze over with just Chaouchi to beat.

In a sensational climax to regulation time Keita scored six minutes after replacing Kalou with a candidate for goal of the tournament, unleashing an unstoppable shot from outside the area into the roof of the net.

Algeria refused to surrender, however, and unmarked defender Bougherra was first to a cross on 92 minutes and headed the ball down and up over Barry to take a thriller into extra time.