By Mark Gleeson
SOUSSE, Jan 29 - Ten-man Algeria scored a late
winner to pull off a shock 2-1 win over Egypt in Group C of the
African Nations Cup on Thursday and join defending champions
Cameroon at the top of the standings.
A mazy run from deep in his own half by substitute Hocine
Achiou gave Algeria the three points, after they had spent much
of the time defending wave after wave of Egyptian attacks
Achiou tricked his way past several Egyptian defenders to
score four minutes from time and send a capacity crowd, almost
exclusively made up of Algerian supporters, into a frenzy.
Algeria took a surprise lead through Mamar Mamouni from a
corner kick after 13 minutes but the midfielder later turned
from hero to villain when he was sent off in the second half
after pushing Egypt's Ahmed Hassan in the face.
Egypt equalised in the 25th minute through Ahmed Belal, who
took advantage of some poor defending which left Algeria
repeatedly exposed on the lefthand side.
Just before the break, Egypt squandered a chance to take the
lead when Belal got in the way of team mate Hassan, who missed
an easy opportunity.
Egypt went looking for the winner in the second-half after
Algeria were reduced to 10 men but passionate defending kept
them at bay.
Algeria took off striker Mansour Boutabout to strengthen
their defence, in a bid to hold on for the draw, before they
profited from a brilliant individual effort from Achiou.
The win sparked off massive scenes of celebration at the
22,000-capacity stadium.
Algeria will now fancy their chances of progressing to the
quarter-finals when they meet Zimbabwe in Sousse next week.
Zimbabwe, after two successive defeats, have already been
eliminated. Egypt will have to beat Cameroon to stand any chance
of making the last eight.