Congo send Ethiopia packing

Ethiopia were eliminated from the 2014 African Nations Championship after suffering a 1-0 loss to Congo at the Free State Stadium on Friday night. The Group C clash in Bloemfontein was settled by a late goal from the Red Devils’ Rudy Ndey.


The Walia Antelopes were expected to be one of the stronger teams in this tournament, but a second successive defeat (they were beaten 2-0 by Libya in their opener earlier this week) means they have no chance of getting out of the group.
Congo, on the other hand, have revived their hopes and now trail the group leaders Libya and Ghana by just a point.

The next clear chance went the way of Ethiopia, as a lobbed pass over Congo’s defence put Omod Okwury through on goal, but the striker wasn’t able to get the ball out from under his feet and Magnokele Bissiki was able to recover and win back possession.

Adane Girma then cut inside from the left of the Walia Antelopes’ attack and let fly from just outside the box – his shot looked destined for the back of the net, but went just wide of Gildas Mouyabi’s left-hand upright.
Perhaps the best scoring chance of the half went the way of Congo’s Moise Nkounkou just a few minutes before the break, as he found himself in plenty of space on the left of the 18-yard box, but his toe-poked shot was timid and off target.

Eight minutes into the second half Ethiopia’s Tassew made the first really impressive save of the match, palming away a crisply-hit shot from Bersyl Obassi that looked destined for the top corner.
Just before the hour mark it was Mouyabi’s turn to produce an excellent stop, as he kept out a low effort from Behailu Assefa. A short while later, left-back Abebaw Butako produced a perfect cross between defence and goalkeeper, but no one in an Ethiopia shirt was able to get onto the end of it.

With just over 15 minutes to play Congo’s Hardy Binguila came as close as any player to finding a goal, driving a powerful left-footed volley beyond the reach of Tassew only to see it ricochet off the top of the crossbar.

Yet on 78 minutes Binguila was able to provide an assist for the opening goal, poking through a volley for Rudy Ndey to control on the chest before coolly placing a shot past Tassew to finally break the deadlock.
Binguila should have wrapped up the game for Congo in injury time when he had only the ‘keeper to beat, but Tassew was able to come out on top in the one-on-one situation, though it proved to be in vain.

Ethiopia should have opened the scoring as early as the sixth minute, as a free kick found Fasika Asfaw unmarked in the penalty area, but he failed to get over his header and the ball travelled over the crossbar for a goal kick.

A minute later Congo created a great chance for Hardy Binguila, who arrived late in the box to meet a fine left-wing cross, but his attempt to direct the ball toward goal failed to even trouble goalkeeper Jemal Tassew. On 13 minutes Congo’s Herman Lakolo tried his hand direct from a free kick and sent a swerving shot just wide of the target.