Ghana squeezed through to the African Cup of Nations semifinals with a 2-1 win over Tunisia on Sunday following goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi’s dreadful mistake in extra time.
Mathlouthi dropped a seemingly harmless cross to allow Andre Ayew to poke home Ghana’s winner in the 101st minute and take the Black Stars through a tense quarterfinal and into a last-four meeting with Zambia.
Recalled Ghana captain John Mensah headed his team in front in the 10th minute at Stade de Franceville, but Saber Khalifa put Tunisia level in the 42nd, also from a header, after a cross by Zouhaier Dhaouadi.
Tunisia defender Aymen Abdennour was sent off late on for elbowing Ayew in a bad-tempered finish as his team’s frustrations boiled over after matching Ghana, only for Mathlouthi’s blunder to seal its exit.
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Ghana meets Zambia in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, while Ivory Coast will play Mali in Wednesday’s other semifinal in Libreville, Gabon.
Mathlouthi’s awful moment – in which he spilled Emmanuel Agyemang Badu’s cross right at the feet of Ayew – came after Tunisia had made a strong start in extra time and looked to be in control against a Ghana team that rode its luck throughout the 120 minutes.
All Ayew had to do was control the ball and side-foot into the empty net from a slight angle to keep the four-time champion’s hopes of a first title in 30 years intact.
Abdennour raised his elbow toward Ayew’s face to earn a straight red card in the 108th, as Tunisia’s players lost their discipline at the end.
Substitute Issam Jemaa was also lucky not to be punished by the Cameroonian referee after lunging in with two reckless tackles.
”Maybe at the end it wasn’t the best,” Ghana assistant coach Kwesi Appiah said. ”They (Tunisia) made a game look like a war. We knew Tunisia had a good team and we had to rely on counterattacks. We weren’t surprised it went to extra time. We’re just lucky to be going to the next round.”
