The fairytale winning run of South Africa in the African Nations Championship ended on Friday as they fell 2-0 to Algeria in Sudan.
Abdelkader Laifaoui broke the quarterfinal deadlock from a penalty one minute before half-time and Hocine Metref added a second goal three minutes into stoppage time on an artificial Khartoum Stadium pitch.
Sudan needed a penalty shoot-out, which they won 4-3, to oust Niger in the late fixture after Bakri al-Gadir had given the host nation an early lead in regulation time and Sidibe Modibo levelled midway through the second half.
Algeria will return to the Sudanese capital next Tuesday for a semifinal showdown with title holders Democratic Republic of Congo or Tunisia while Cameroon or Angola are next up for Sudan in Omdurman.
The Algerian victory thrilled coach Abdelhak Benchika, who set a place among the last four as the minimum target for his 23-man squad ahead of the biennial tournament restricted to home-based footballers.
While many in the Algerian team are combat-hardened African campaigners at club and national team level, the South African side was composed largely of amateurs from third-tier regional league sides.
Premiership and second division clubs refused to free their stars, forcing coach Simon Ngomane to select raw unknowns who defeated Ghana, Niger and Zimbabwe to top Group B and reach the knockout stage.
Algeria finished second behind Sudan in Group A after comfortably defeating Uganda and drawing with 10-man Gabon and the host nation in the three-week second edition of a championship staged by Côte d’Ivoire two years ago.
Although Ngomane expressed pre-match fears about his team playing on the artificial turf for the first time, South Africa had the upper hand early on with Tiyani Mabunya going close from a free kick.
However, Algeria improved as the half progressed and South Africa had a let off when Khaled Lemmouchia put Metref through but his feeble shot was parried by goalkeeper Jacob Mokhasi.
South Africa were under increasing pressure and fell behind when Moustafa Djallit was fouled and Laifaoui made no mistake from the penalty spot to give his team a half-time advantage.
Hadj Aissa made a big impact when introduced by Algeria in the second half and went close with a glancing header before starting the move that led to the killer second goal from Metref.
Sudan did not concede a goal in three mini-league matches and must have felt confident in Omdurman when Al-Gadir struck his first goal of the tournament on 17 minutes.
But Niger proved their shock qualifying triumph over Nigeria was no fluke with a brave display and Modibo equalised after 65 minutes to send the teams into 30 goalless minutes of extra time.
Cameroon and Angola will kick off the Saturday action with a mid-afternoon clash followed three and a half hours later by the intriguing duel between Democratic Republic of Congo and Tunisia. – AFP