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| January 28, 2006 | Saturday | Zilhaj 27, 1426 |
Tunisia dump South Africa
ALEXANDRIA, Jan 27: Classy Tunisia defeated South Africa 2-0 here at the Harras El-Hedod Stadium Thursday to join Guinea in the quarterfinals of the 2006 African Nations Cup.
The defending champions went in front after 33 minutes through Santos, who collected a misplaced back pass by Bennie McCarthy and his shot slipped through the hands of Bafana goalkeeper Calvin Marlin for his fourth goal of the competition.
They doubled their lead in the 57th minute courtesy of Selim Ben Achour who smashed home a low cross from the right taken by skipper Hatem Trabelsi.
In the earlier Group C match played here the Syli Stars of Guinea recorded a dramatic 2-1 victory over Zambia to book their place in the last eight.
Tunisia and Guinea, who have both recorded six points from two matches, will clash Monday here to decide the group winners.
Bafana skipper Sibusiso Zuma said he was disappointed that his team had been eliminated from the competition at such an early stage.
Tunisia coach Roger Lemerre said his team were on course to successfully defend the championship they won on home soil two years ago.
It’s the second successive time that South Africa, the 1996 African champions, have crashed out in the first round. Two years ago in Tunisia, they failed to go past a group that included Nigeria, Morocco and Benin.
Tunisia went on the attack from the first whistle as Santos and Karim Haggui came close to putting their names on the scoresheet. Santos even swept home a low cross on nine minutes but his effort was ruled offside.
But Bafana somehow survived the wave after wave of attack by the Carthage Eagles to launch their own attack.
Skipper Zuma, initially an injury doubt for this encounter, saw his lob from the edge of the box after 16 minutes go wide off target.
In the 18th minute Bennie McCarthy’s free kick after Zuma was brought down on top of the Tunisian area also missed target. And seven minutes later the FC Porto striker was released on goal by Zuma but his shot smashed against the base of the post and into touch.
Tunisia continued to mount pressure and were rewarded 12 minutes into the second half by a sweetly struck Ben Achour goal.
And almost immediately goalkeeper Marlin was forced to dive full length to block a shot by Adel Chedli, who found himself all alone inside the box. A lurking Santos failed to squezze the rebound.
South Africa responded well in the 64th minute when Zuma’s spectacular flying shot was cleared off the goal line.
Tunisia regained the attacking initiative and in the 72nd minute Santos sped past big central defender Pierre Issah but his final shot was disappointing.
Siyabonga Nkosi replaced Zuma late on to prompt what appeared to be a South African revival but they found the Tunisian defence marshalled by Bolton star Radhi Jaidi uncompromising.—AFP
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