Nigeria displayed the class of real
champions when they crushed
Mali 4-1 and stayed on course to
win the African Nations Cup for
the first time in 19 years on
Wednesday. A superb semifinal at the Moses
Mabhida stadium was won and
lost in a blistering 20-minute
first-half spell in which Nigeria
scored three goals to leave
them dreaming of a first title since current coach Stephen
Keshi captained them to glory in
1994. Goals from defender Elderson
Echiejile, who stooped to head
home after 25 minutes, Brown
Ideye, who scrambled one in
after 30 minutes and an own
goal from Mali defender Momo Sissoko a minute before halftime
put Keshi's team in total control. They made it 4-0 when
substitute Ahmed Musa, who
replaced the outstanding Victor
Moses after 53 minutes scored
three minutes after coming on,
beating the offside trap and slipping the ball through
goalkeeper Mamadou Samassa's
legs. Nigeria also had the ball in the
net for a fifth time shortly
afterwards, but the goal was
disallowed for offside. Keshi is now one victory away
from becoming only the second
man in the tournament's 56-year
history to win it as a player and
coach. The only person to have
achieved the feat is Egyptian Mahmoud El Gohary, who won it
in 1959 and 1998. Mali, who famously came back
from 4-0 down to draw 4-4 with
Angola in the opening game of
the 2010 finals, never looked like
repeating that feat but did
score a consolation when substitute Cheick Diarra fired
home in the 75th minute. [embed:video:id=212854] That goal did nothing to dampen
the Nigerian celebrations that
followed the final whistle as the
team booked a place in Sunday's
final, where they will meet the
winners of Wednesday's second semi between Ghana and Burkina
Faso. Keshi, who spent two years
coaching Mali and knows most of
their players well, said he was
obviously delighted with the
victory by his young team, which
he said should not be compared to his victorious 1994 team. "We won in 1994 after we had
been together for five years,"
he told reporters. "But we have been together for
five weeks. We met up for the
first time in our training camp in
Portugal before the tournament,
and it was a young group. "We worked hard, the
atmosphere was wonderful but
you cannot compare this team
to that. We did play very well
today and I am very happy but
we haven't won anything yet." SUPERIOR OPPONENTS Mali, inspired by the conflict in
their homeland, and widely
tipped to go one better than
last year's semifinal appearance,
started better but failed with a
trio of early chances and could not find a way back into the
game once Nigeria took charge. One of the reasons Mali were
considered such a threat was
the form in this tournament of
skipper Seydou Keita, who has
turned the clock back on his 32
years and given the kind of performances he used to give
when he was with Barcelona. But as hard as he tried on
Wednesday, he could not reverse
Mali's fortunes against superior
opponents on the day. "We played against a very good
team, who were better than us
on the day," Keita told
reporters. "And that is difficult to handle,
especially as the country back
home was looking to us and
expecting a victory from us but
we didn't win it for them, and
that is very hard." Mali actually looked the better
team for the opening 20 minutes
and Modibo Maiga and Keita had
headers that went close while
Sissoko unleashed a thunderous
effort from 30 metres out that went just over Vincent
Enyeama's crossbar. But Nigeria, with John Obi Mikel
and Ogenyi Onanzi and the
superb Moses who made the
opening two goals, asserting
themselves in midfield, suddenly
took control of the game with devastating effect. The breakthrough came when
Moses turned and nutmegged
Mali defender Adama Tamboura
wide on the left and sent in a
low cross which Echiejile,
unmarked, stooped to head home. Five minutes later Ideye doubled
their lead from another Moses
cross, bundling the ball home
with Samassa powerless to
prevent him scoring. The third came when Gambian
referee Backary Papa Gassama
awarded Nigeria a free kick on
the edge of the box just before
halftime. Emmanuel Emenike's powerfully
struck effort took a big
deflection off Sissoko leaving
Samassa watching the ball go
into his net for a third time to
effectively kill the contest and send Nigeria into the continental
final for the first time since
2000. The one worry for Keshi is
whether Moses, who came off
with an injury early in the
second half, will be fit in time. "We will know more tomorrow,"
he said.