Print Print edition: 2012-01-29

Gabon, Tunisia through; Morocco, Niger head home

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Gabon and Tunisia became the latest teams to seal their Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final places on Friday as Morocco and newcomers Niger were knocked out. Day seven at the 2012 Nations Cup delivered up a Group C double bill in Libreville. The first leg saw Tunisia, champions in 2004, down Niger 2-1 to put one foot in the last eight.
Next on the menu at the L'Amitie Stadium came Gabon, who faced a Morocco side fighting for their Cup lives after an opening loss to Tunisia. Not one of the 40,000 crowd spurring on their national team will ever forget this tie which erupted in the final quarter of an hour with four goals, two of them in stoppage time.
Morocco, with an injury time penalty, believed they had done enough to keep the wheels on their Cup campaign, but that wasn't counting on Bruno Mbanangoyes's curling freekick in the final second of the eighth minute of stoppage time of a remarkable encounter. Gabon had been on the brink of winning in normal time after goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Daniel Cousin in the 73rd and 77th minutes had put them in command after Houssine Kharja's opener.