African Nations Cup: Drogba fires Ivory Coast into semis

Published on Sunday 5 February 2012 00:00

DIDIER Drogba scored twice and missed a penalty as Ivory Coast reached the African Cup of Nations semi-finals with a 3-0 win over Equatorial Guinea yesterday.

Ivory Coast had three shots blocked before the ball fell to Max Gradel who volleyed wildly over the crossbar from close range. The Elephants won a penalty in the 29th minute when Ben Konate tripped Didier Zokora. Drogba shot low to Danilo’s right but the Brazilian-born goalkeeper got his fist to it.

The Chelsea forward made amends seven minutes later when he pounced following a comedy of errors in the Equatorial Guinea defence. The ball was headed back to Rui who failed to control it, allowing Drogba to steal in, cut inside a man and, despite slipping, score inside the near post. Drogba finished off the home team’s chances when he headed in Yaya Toure’s free kick in the 70th minute, silencing the stadium. Toure completed the scoring by curling a free kick past Danilo from 30 metres with nine minutes to play.

Zambia also made it to the semi-finals for the first time in 16 years after a comfortable 3-0 win over ten-man Sudan. Stophira Sunzu, Christopher Katongo and James Chamanga all netted, while Sudan’s Saifeldin Ali saw red.

Logged in as:

Comment here. Start typing your comment here:

Post comment

Please adhere to our Community guidelines

Your view

Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.