African Nations Cup Round-Up: Ivory Coast won a dramatic 24-penalty shoot-out against Cameroon to become the only representative of the continent's five World Cup qualifiers in tomorrow's African Cup of Nations semi-finals.
With the scores level at 1-1 after extra-time all 11 players on each side, including the goalkeepers, scored with the first 22 penalties.
Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o, taking his second spot-kick, wafted the ball over and Chelsea's Didier Drogba hit the decisive strike.
The match had been a bruising affair, with Eto'o, the tournament's top marksman with five goals, singled out by the Ivorians, including Arsenal's Kolo Toure, who was booked for a crude foul on the Barcelona striker.
Ivory Coast's French coach, Henri Michel, refused to get carried away with his team's victory. "Just because we've beaten Cameroon doesn't make us world champions," he said yesterday.
"We're not even the African champions. It's good to have beaten them, bravo, but we've got Nigeria next. The toughest is still to come; we've proved nothing yet."
Nigeria have the only 100 per cent record after defeating the holders, Tunisia, 6-5 in another penalty shoot-out, avenging a shoot-out defeat in the 2004 tournament.
West Brom's Nwankwo Kanu was the somewhat reluctant taker of the decisive penalty before Vincent Enyeama saved from Tunisia's Riadh Bouazizi.
The match had finished 1-1 with the Nigerian teenager Obinna Nsofor opening the scoring before Karim Hagui levelled with a far-post header after the interval.
In between, Tunisia's Jose Clayton saw his first-half penalty saved by Enyeama. John Obi Mikel, the 18-year-old coveted by Manchester United and Chelsea, was named man of the match for the second game running.
"What I'm trying to do here is to get a balance in our team," said Augustine Eguavoen, who is aiming to be the first Nigerian coach to win the Nations Cup.
"If you look at the entire team, yes we have young players in key positions."
With the hosts Egypt, who beat DR Congo 4-1, facing Senegal, 3-2 victors over Guinea, in the other semi-final tomorrow, the tournament is wide open.
