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Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Africa Cup of Nations: Senegal v Algeria and South Africa v Ghana – live!

All the latest action from the final two matches in Group C Senegal, Algeria, South Africa and Ghana can all still qualifyEmail ian.mccourt@guardian.com or tweet @ianmccourt 6.07pm GMT More goalkeeper chat:@jonawils S Africa doing the 3-keepers-in-tournament trick last done by, er, Tahiti. (France 78, Belgium, Czech 82, Greece 94 at WC). 6.06pm GMT That was an absolute shocker of a miss from Feghouli. It was like he panicked and missed when scoring seemed to be the easiest option. He also threw himself on the floor afterwards, pretending to be injured. Think it might have been his pride, rather than anything physical. 6.04pm GMT Senegal have been dominating the early possession but it is Algeria who have the first opportunity. Senegal fumble around the back and Algeria close them down quickly and gain possession just outside the box. Feghouli is through on goal and only has Coundoul to beat but he dallies on the ball and tries to go around the keeper but Coundoul dives at his feet and recovers the ball. 6.00pm GMT Peeeeeeep go the whistles and it is off we go. Just in case you are wondering, we will not be covering one game exclusively but we will be doing our best to cover the main events from both. 5.57pm GMT The four teams are out on the pitch and ready to belt out their respective anthems. Hands are raised to hearts, eyes are deadened and the words are whispered quietly. No John Hayes style crying over there. 5.49pm GMT Elsewhere in Africa, countries will vote overwhelmingly for Sepp Blatter in this year’s Fifa presidential election, senior officials said on Tuesday. Sigh.“Africa is solidly behind Blatter. You will find he is very popular on the continent,” said Kwesi Nyantakyi, the president of the Ghana FA and a Confederation of African Football (Caf) executive committee member.Blatter faces four challengers in his bid for re-election on 29 May, when he seeks a fifth term as president, which would take him past his 80th birthday. 5.36pm GMT We finally have some team news from Senegal v Algeria courtesy of the nice people on ITV: 5.23pm GMT If you, like me, thought that South Africa playing three different keepers in the one tournament was unusual, then the Knowledge is on hand to expose your ignorance. Still waiting on some team news from the Senegal and Algeria camps by the way. Will get that to you as soon as it lands. 5.16pm GMT South Africa: Khuzwayo, Ngcongca, Matlaba, Coetzee, Mathoho, Furman, Jali, Masango, Phala, Rantie, Ndulula.Ghana: Braimah, Afful, Rahman, Amartey, Mensah, Acquah, Wakaso, A. Ayew, Atsu, Gyan, J. Ayew. 5.10pm GMT From our man on the scene: Press-box rammed; stands pretty empty with an hour till kick-off in Senegal v Algeria. Hot and humid, despite a ferocious storm overnight.A one-man Algerian pitch-invader dances round the training cones with a flag. It'll probably turn out he was advertising headphones. 5.00pm GMT Hello and welcome to this evening’s coverage of the Africa Cup of Nations and the final games in group C. Let’s start by getting the permutations out of the way.As it stands, Senegal top the group on four points; Ghana have three; Algeria also have three; and South Africa are lagging behind in last with just one point. Senegal only need a draw from their match with Algeria to be assured of their place in the last eight. Of course, a sharing of the spoils would be good enough for Algeria too, should Ghana slip up against South Africa. And of course, should Algeria lose to Senegal and Ghana do one over South Africa, it will be the Black Stars that keep on shining. Heck, even South Africa could go through should they win and Senegal win or in the case of an Algeria win once South Africa can overturn their goal difference deficit to Senegal. But to be quiet frank that seems about as likely as your uncle Liam calling around to your house to say that he has always felt trapped in his man’s body and that he is off to Vegas for the requisite surgery and then he is going to work in a casino as a cocktail server where he can fulfil his ambitions to sing and dance and make people happy. Continue reading...


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