{"id":17523,"date":"2013-02-02T22:25:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T22:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2013\/02\/afcon-2013-mali-ends-safrica-cup-dream\/"},"modified":"2013-02-02T22:25:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-02T22:25:00","slug":"afcon-2013-mali-ends-safrica-cup-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/02\/02\/afcon-2013-mali-ends-safrica-cup-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"AFCON 2013: Mali Ends S\u2019Africa Cup Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"030213F4.South-African-fans.jpg-030213F4.South-African-fans.jpg\"<\/div>\n
\n

South African fans saw their Nations Cup dream ended via penalties<\/strong><\/p>\n

EUROSPORT.COM<\/p>\n

Mali beat hosts South Africa on penalties to qualify for the African Cup of Nations semi-finals after a 1-1 draw at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.<\/p>\n

The hosts started brilliantly and took a deserved lead through Tokelo Rantie, but he went off injured soon afterwards as Mali came back into it, levelling through talismanic captain Seydou Keita, reports Eurosport.<\/p>\n

Neither side seemed overly concerned about finding a winner in the rest of normal time and extra time, meaning penalties were used to settle the contest.<\/p>\n

And the pressure seemed to get to the home side, who missed four of their five penalties, with Mali netting all three of theirs.<\/p>\n

A cagey opening quarter-hour saw South Africa control possession and Mali sit deep, with Mamadou Samassa their only forward outlet.<\/p>\n

The match burst into life just before the quarter-hour when May Mahlangu headed wide from a good position, with the same player almost handing Rantie an opening goal but for fine goalkeeping by Soumbeila Diakite, preferred to the other Mamadou Samassa between the Mali posts.<\/p>\n

Reneilwe Letsholonyane had been brought in by Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund, and he was a lively presence in midfield, beating two men to set up Rantie, who was denied by a fine Adama Tamboura block.<\/p>\n

Mali were struggling to pass halfway, although when they did there was more than a hint of danger, Tamboura getting forward from left-back and almost swinging a cross-shot in past Itumeleng Kune.<\/p>\n

But the home side had been by far the more positive and deserved their opener just after the half hour.<\/p>\n

It had come from a Mali free-kick, with a rapid counter attack seeing Thuso Pala\u2019s driving run wreak havoc in a backtracking defence: he found Rantie unmarked, the Malmo striker ramming home an easy finish.<\/p>\n

Rantie\u2019s match did not last much longer though, a thigh injury cutting his evening short as Mali improved going into half-time: there were chances for Samassa, Samba Sow and Sigamary Diarra, but some good blocks by Bongani Khumalo and Dean Furman kept South Africa\u2019s noses in front.<\/p>\n

Rantie\u2019s injury had a game-changing impact, it seemed, as Mali retained the momentum into the second half, starting promisingly as they put the pressure on South Africa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African fans saw their Nations Cup dream ended via penalties EUROSPORT.COM Mali beat hosts South Africa on penalties to qualify for the African Cup of Nations semi-finals after a 1-1 draw at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. The hosts started brilliantly and took a deserved lead through Tokelo Rantie, but he went off injured soon afterwards as Mali came back into it, levelling through talismanic captain Seydou Keita, reports Eurosport…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}