Cameroon ... 1, Egypt ... 0Defending champions Cameroon advanced to the semi-finals of the African Nations Cup in Sikasso, Mali, yesterday after Patrick Mboma scored the decisive goal.
The African footballer of the year netted his third goal of the tournament midway through the second half of a tense quarter-final at the Babemba Traore Stadium.
The Parma star's goal came from a Geremi Njitap corner on 62 minutes when Mboma outjumped Salah Al-Hosni to glance his header past Egyptian goalkeeper Essam Al-Hadary.
The win sees the Indomitable Lions advance to a semi-final on Thursday against hosts Mali.
It was a sorry exit for four-time champions Egypt, whose strategy of defending in depth and looking for chances on the counter-attack made for a lacklustre encounter.
Cameroon, the more adventurous side, had chances to increase their tally late on, but in the end had to settle for victory by a single goal.
Egypt's only attempts at an equaliser came from an Ahmed Hossam header that flashed well wide of the post and a Yaser Radwan free kick that flew over.
Egypt were also lucky not to have gone a goal down in the 50th minute after a dreadful blunder by Al-Hadary, regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in Africa. Al-Hadary stumbled on the ball as he attempted to clear, miskicking straight to Samuel Eto'o.
Eto'o rounded Al-Hadary and needed only to roll the ball home from eight yards for the simplest of goals. But the Real Mallorca forward was left cursing after smashing his shot high and wide.
In last night's other quarter-final, Senegal became the third World Cup qualifiers to reach the semi-finals after defeating the Democratic Republic of Congo 2-0 in a stormy clash.
Congolese Alexis Tekumu became the first player to be sent off in the championship after the second brawl of the match erupted with full-time beckoning.
Tekumu made a two-footed lunge at Bouba Diop just after his team had fallen two goals behind, triggering ugly touchline scenes as Italian referee Domenico Messina battled to seperate players.
It marked a sad exit of a team that caused the surprise of the group phase by finishing ahead of Ivory Coast.
A headed goal by Alassane Diao from French club Sedan put the Teranga Lions ahead after 31 minutes, and Al-Hadji Diouf struck a simple second with four mintues of normal time left.
CAMEROON: Alioum; Tchato, Kalla, Song, Njitap, Wome, Foe, Mayer, Olembe, (Kome 73), Eto'o (Suffo 90), Mboma.
EGYPT: El Hadary; Omara, Ramzy, El Saqqa, Fahim (Gomaa 53), Radwan, Barakat, Hassan (El Amin 81), Imam, Hossam, Hosny (Hamza 66).
Referee: M Daami (Tunisia)
