SUDAN (2) VRS (2) ANGOLA

Angola's Manucho celebrates after scoring against Burkina Faso in their Africa Cup

The desert hawks of Sudan (currently ranked 120 in the FIFA rankings) claimed a hard fought drawn game with Angola (ranked 85^th) at the Malabo stadium in the second round of matches at the ongoing AFCON 2012 tournament yesterday.

Both teams are hence still in contention for a place in the next round.

Watching the match: in the 4^th minute- An appalling defending was ruthlessly punished by the former Manchester United man, Alberto Manucho. Eldin got caught in possession outside his own box and no one could recover in time to stop Manucho from blasting past the Sudanese goalkeeper and into the net via the post.

6 min: Munwia of Sudan was booked for a reckless tackle, and conceded a free kick in a dangerous position but Gilberto curls it into the centre and Munwia again put it out for a corner.

9 min: There was no sign of Sudan getting into this game or causing Angola as many problems as they did Ivory Coast at the weekend. They were looking like a third rated team at that moment.

17 min: Sudan threatened for the first time with a fine left-footed strike from distance by Tahir: Carlos in post for Angola parried the ball to safety.

20 min: Sudan started to come into the game with some nifty passing in midfield enabling them to make inroads towards the Angolan box.

GOAL! 31min: Sudan’s persistence pays as they score their first goal in these finals since 1976. Bashir, jumped between the two slightly negligent centre backs to head a cross into the net after a searching deep cross from the right.

The half ended with both sides creating decent chances but lacking the cutting edge to score.

With the second half in motion, Sudan begun on a high note and put relentless pressure on the Angolan’s.

50 min: PENALTY! Djalam wins a penalty for Angola with some assistance from Nazar, whose attempt to tackle was thoroughly incompetent.

Manucho stepped up and scored his third goal in this tournament.

From hence, Angola continued to look the more confident and kept on piling pressure on the Sudanese.

65 min: Sudan made a quick change hoping to change the tide: off came their captain, Hitham, for Abdali.

73 min GOAL: Yet again, Sudan equalised through Bashir from out of the blue, helped by abysmal Angolan defending. Four defenders in the box for Angola around Bashir get into a mix-up and offered the opportunity for Vunguidica to present the ball to the striker, who swiped it gratefully into the net!

It was all Sudan from hence…piling on the pressure but again denied by lack of ideas at the last third of the pitch.

Source—theghanaianjournal.com