Bony scores twice as Ivory Coast book place in Africa Cup of Nations semi-final

Ivory Coast 3 Algeria 1

A Wilfried Bony brace and a late Gervinho effort secured a 3-1 victory for Ivory Coast last night, sending them into the Africa Cup Cup of Nations semi-finals at the expense of Algeria.

Manchester City’s Bony was the game’s outstanding individual, opening the scoring on 26 minutes after heading home a fantastic Max Gradel cross.

Algeria fought back into the match through El Arabi Soudani’s 51st minute goal after again exposing Ivory Coast’s defensive fragility. However, Bony put the Ivorians back on top, leaping superbly to power a Yaya Touré free kick past Rais Mbolhi on 68 minutes. Despite several late scares, the Ivorians clung on to their lead, with Gervinho adding a third in the dying moments, and advance to face Democratic Republic of Congo in the first semi-final in Bata on Wednesday.

Earlier, Ghana reached a fifth straight African Nations Cup semi-final with a 3-0 stroll over a disappointing Guinea thanks to goals from Christian Atsu and Kwesi Appiah.

Ghana will meet hosts Equatorial Guinea in the second semi-final on Thursday after a confident display.

Defensive howler

Everton’s Atsu gave the Group C winners control of the match early on following a third-minute opener and Appiah doubled their lead on the stroke of halftime, firing home from close range after a defensive howler. Atsu then added a sublime third midway through the second half.

Despite making only his first start for the national side, Appiah was influential in the opening goal, running down the left before playing in Andre Ayew who back-heeled across the box leaving Atsu to apply the finish.

The rest of the half was punctured by fouls and regular stoppages, before Appiah, who plays in England’s fourth tier with Cambridge United, increased Ghana’s grip on the game.

The lively forward was quick to pounce on a Baissama Sankoh miss-kick following a Boubacar Fofana backpass, making no mistake with a sharp finish past Naby Yattara.

Atsu, the game’s outstanding performer, then added a magical third on 60 minutes when he fired a curling left-footed shot into the far corner of Yattara’s goal from outside the box and from a tight angle.