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Sports News from Thursday, July 11, 2019
Source: bbc.com
2019-07-11
Youssef Msakni scored the goal to guarantee the progress of Tunisia
Tunisia has reached its first African Cup of Nations semifinal since 2004 as it put an end to the fairytale course of Madagascar.
The Carthage Eagles, who face Senegal Sunday in the final draw, led off the deflected shot by Ferjani Sbadi.
Youssef Msakni then doubled his lead after Wahbi Khazri's shot was blocked by Melvin Adrien.
Naim Sliti added a third overtime time to end a counter-attack as Madagascar sent the players forward.
Madagascar, ranked 108th in the world, was the story of their first tournament. They had to start qualifying for Afcon in the prelims in March 2017, but then stunned Nigeria in the group stages last month and DR Congo in the last 16.
Their team includes players playing in Reunion, the French lower leagues and Thailand. Their head coach, Nicolas Dupuis, also manages the fourth-ranked French, Fleury.
But their dream ended because they were beaten by a professional performance of Tunisia in Cairo.
Tunisian playmaker Khazri was heavily involved in the match throughout the match. The free kick was given by Adrien. He then thought that he had scored the first match, but he was denied correctly for offside.
Tunisia made this breakthrough when Sbadi's shot hit the back of Thomas Fontaine and flew to the net. And the game was over once Msakni had scored.
The underdogs, who never felt like scoring, took chances to try to get back in the game – and Khazri equalized the ball for Sliti to finish the break and seal the win.
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