Namibia's Dion Hutto scored in the 88th minute to give them a shock 1-0 victory over Tunisia in the African Cup of Nations on Tuesday and continue the series of surprising results that dominated the first days of the tournament.
The winger sneaked in at the back post to give the South African nation, 87 places behind Tunisia in the world rankings, a deserved victory as they were noticeably more aggressive and created the better chances in their Group E opener at Stade Amadou Gon Coulibaly.
Namibia, competing in its fourth World Cup finals but has yet to win a match, was supposed to win by a greater margin but was let down by poor decision-making.
Tunisia is at the top of the group, but it suffered during the match, and its goalkeeper, Bashir Ben Said, made several saves from Namibia’s captain, Peter Shalulil. Hutto also missed a clear opportunity in the first half and blocked a curling free kick minutes before he hit the back post to secure the victory. Follow the latest news on koora live .
Tunisia made a powerful save from Lloyd Casabua's shot in the final 15 minutes with a header that was acrobatically converted over the top but that was as close as they got to a game they were expected to dominate.
The North African team, which is ranked 28th in the FIFA rankings, the third highest African team, appeared nervous and unprepared. They join Ghana as previous winners who lost their opening match in the tournament while Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt and Nigeria played in matches they were expected to win.
Bertrand Traoré scored from a penalty kick in stoppage time to give Burkina Faso a 1-0 win over Mauritania in their Group D match at the Al Salam Stadium in Bouaké, writing a piece of history.
This is Burkina Faso's first win in their opening match of the Africa Cup of Nations finals, and it came at the thirteenth attempt, when Aston Villa midfielder Traoré scored a penalty kick after a foul by Mauritania's captain, Mohamed El Abd.
Burkina Faso dominated the ball, but it was Mauritania that created the better chances, although the excellent reactions of goalkeeper Hervé Koffi denied them, and they will feel sad that they did not get anything from the match after they conceded a goal in the 96th minute. Burkina Faso leads the group with three points after the first round of matches. The exciting Algerian team surprisingly tied with Angola 1-1 on Monday.
Mali took advantage of an early opportunity to beat South Africa 2-0 and take the lead in Group E
After Percy Tau missed a penalty kick for South Africa, Malian captain Hamare Traoré opened the scoring after the hour mark, then Lassine Senayuku added the second goal six minutes later, putting the West African team ahead of Namibia in the standings on goal difference.
Traoré was quick to respond and scored from centimeters after South Africa's goalkeeper, Ronwen Williams, narrowly parried a Sekou Koueta free-kick at the Stade Amadou Gon Koulibaly and the second goal came soon after when a through ball put Senayoko at goal and he shrugged off two defensive challenges to score from the net. Close distance.