TUNIS, 8 February 2004 — Roger Lemerre finally got revenge for the most embarrassing day of his career yesterday when he guided his Tunisia team to a 1-0 win over Senegal and into the semifinals of the African Nations Cup.
It was the Lions of Terenga who defeated his world champions France 1-0 in the opening match of the 2002 World Cup with a victory which sent shockwaves throughout the sport.
But yesterday, it was Lemerre who was left smiling as the host nation kicked off a night of celebrations after Jawhar Mnari scored the only goal of the game in the 65th minute in front of 60,000 people at the Rades Stadium.
In Wednesday’s semifinal, they will take on either defending champions Cameroon or Nigeria. Mali also booked their place in the last four with a dramatic injury-time 2-1 win over Guinea at Mensah and they will face either Morocco or Algeria for a place in next Saturday’s final.
Mnari’s winning goal for Tunisia midway through the second half was hotly-disputed and the fall-out typical of a bad-tempered clash. Senegal, who were runners-up to Cameroon at the last tournament in 2002, have struggled since those heady days of the World Cup with the slump in form of golden boy El Hadji Diouf mirroring that of his teammates.
The Liverpool player had another miserable night and even had to be pulled away from arguing with the Tunisian bench in the dying moments. The opening half produced few chances at a fog-enveloped Rades Stadium on a cold, windy evening on the outskirts of the Tunisian capital.
With 65 minutes gone the stalemate was broken with a downward header from midfielder Mnari beating goalkeeper Tony Sylva.
Furious Senegalese players and officials held up play for four minutes protesting the goal, but when play resumed the West Africans were rattled and never settled.
Earlier in the day, a terrible blunder by Guinea goalkeeper Kemoko Camara allowed Mali captain Mahamadou Diarra to score a dramatic injury-time winner to give his side a 2-1 win and a place in the semifinals. Camara fumbled Diarra’s long distance drive and allowed the ball to slip beneath his body and into the net. The win gives Mali, who had to fight back from a goal down, a semifinal place for the fourth time in four appearances and their second in succession. Pascal Feindounou had given Guinea a 14th minute lead before Frederic Kanoute hit a first-half injury-time equalizer. Mali coach Henri Stambouli was full of praise for Tottenham striker Kanoute who has now joined Cameroon’s Patrick Mboma as joint top scorer at the tournament with four goals.
