African Cup of Nations 2015: Manchester City boys Wilfried Bony and Yaya Touré help Ivory Coast into semis

Wilfried Bony had not scored in this year’s African Cup of Nations until his two headed goals last night

Sports Staff
Monday 02 February 2015 00:33 GMT
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Wilfried Bony had not scored in this year’s African Cup of Nations until his two headed goals
Wilfried Bony had not scored in this year’s African Cup of Nations until his two headed goals (Reuters)

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Manchester City team-mates Yaya Touré and Wilfried Bony helped seal Ivory Coast’s passage into the semi-finals of the African Cup of Nations with a 3-1 win at the expense of Algeria last night.

Bony headed in his first of two goals off a curling Max Gradel assist, then added a second after the break with another header, this time off the free-kick of his new Manchester City colleague. Gervinho, formerly of Arsenal, added the third in injury time. Hilal Soudani had scored the equaliser for Algeria after he took advantage of a defensive mix-up in the Ivory Coast area.

Everton’s Christian Atsu scored two goals and Kwesi Appiah added another to help Ghana advance to the semi-finals for the fifth straight time with a 3-0 victory over Guinea. Atsu, who is on loan at Goodison Park from Chelsea, put the Black Stars ahead in the fourth minute by scoring after a back-heel pass from Andre Ayew. He added another in the 61st minute.

Appiah scored the second goal of the match just before the break, controlling a defensive mistake from Baissama Sankoh and beating Guinea goalkeeper Naby Yattara.

“For us, we had a winning mentality,” Atsu said. “We went for a win and we worked hard for it. That’s why we won the game. Not because they are a bad team. We went for a win. That’s all.”

The Tunisian Football Federation president, Wadie Jary, resigned from the Confederation of African Football yesterday in protest at the manner of his team’s exit.

A soft penalty cost Tunisia a semi-final place on Saturday as they went from a goal up in stoppage time against Equatorial Guinea in Bata to losing 2-1 in extra time.

In Saturday’s other quarter-final Democratic Republic of Congo fought back from two goals down to beat Congo 4-2, with Dieumerci Mbokani scoring twice.

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