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The Desert Foxes are the first team to book their semifinal spot at the ongoing African Nations Championship.
Hosts of the 2022 TotalEnergies African Nations Championship, CHAN, have reached the semifinal of the competition following a dramatic late win over 10-man Cote D’Ivoire.
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The Desert Foxes defeated the Ivorian counterparts 1-0 thanks to a dramatic late penalty from Amien Mahious at the new Nelson Mandela Stadium on Friday evening.
Both sides had a man sent off, Algeria's Alexis Guendouz for a dangerous foul on Abdoul while Kouassi Attohoula suffered the same fate for Ivory Coast.
In what was a highly entertaining game between the two nations, it took a late gift from Ivory Coast's Aziz Siahone to decide the game in added time.
The game in brief
The fans at the Nelson Mandela Stadium were treated to an end-to-end stuff in the first quarterfinal of the 2022 CHAN.
Algeria started on the front foot and was the first to threaten when Zakaria Draoui almost broke the deadlock as early as the eighth minute.
But the Elephants were saved their blushes as Draoui's header came off the woodwork.
Ivory Coast responded with a chance of their own and should have opened the scoring with the best chance of the half but Aziz Abdoul's final effort left a lot to be desired with just the goalkeeper to beat.
Things took a dramatic turn early on when the hosts were reduced to 10 men in the 20th minute as Guendouz had an early shower after a dangerous tackle on Abdoul.
Algeria played 14 mintes with ten men before Ivory Coast ensured it was a balanced game as Attohoula joined Guendouz in the dressing room, with nothing to separate them at the break.
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It was more of the same in the second half as both sides continued in seacrh of the breakthrough which proved elusive until in added time.
VAR intervenes
With the game looking destined for extra time, Algeria received a gift as the VAR called the referee following a foul in the Ivory Coast box.
In what could be described as a moment of madness, Aziz Siahone hacked down Mahious inside the box in an attempt to clear the ball which he missed completely.
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The centre referee initially waved Algeria's appeal aside before his attention was called by the VAR and the referee had no choice but to award a penalty to the Foxes.
Mahious stepped up to the plate and as calm as ever, coverted the resultant spot kick to fire Algeria safely into the last four.
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