Stage set for Elephants, Carthage Eagles war

RUSTENBURG - A win for Ivory Coast or Tunisia, who meet here on Saturday, could secure a pass to the Africa Cup of Nations last eight with one throw of the Group D dice still to roll.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Orange Africa Cup of NationsTodayIvory Coast     vs     Tunisia    17:00 SS4Algeria     vs     Togo    20:00 SS4RUSTENBURG - A win for Ivory Coast or Tunisia, who meet here on Saturday, could secure a pass to the Africa Cup of Nations last eight with one throw of the Group D dice still to roll.A quarterfinal ticket will go to the winners if the other game in the Rustenburg double-header between Algeria and Togo ends in a draw.Ivory Coast and Tunisia occupy the top two places in the group on the strength of fortunate wins in their opening games.The Ivorians failed to do justice to their status as 2013 favourites when putting in an error-strewn performance on Monday.The game was heading for a draw after Yaya Toure’s goal was cancelled out by Jonathan Ayite until Gervinho struck two minutes from time to clinch all three points.On this evidence, if the Ivorians were at school their report would read: "could do a lot better”.China-based striker Didier Drogba, at his last Nations Cup, was out of sorts and hauled off with a quarter of an hour remaining.The former Chelsea star, who turns 35 in March, acknowledged the work that needed to be done if his team were to lift a title that has frustratingly alluded this golden generation of Elephants.And coach Sabri Lamouchi, while relieved at scraping a win, lamented his side’s catalogue of mistakes in what he described as "the worst game since I took over”.He said: "It wasn’t the best performance, we made lots of technical errors. My team can’t put up the same performance against Tunisia, that’s for sure.