AFCON: Burkina Faso, Namibia, Mali Triumph As Mauritania, Tunisia, South Africa Falter

By: Gyang Dakwo

It what is perhaps the most exciting day of matches in the competition so far, all three matches were won and lost while power houses Tunisia and South Africa lost to less favoured opponents in their opening matches.

Bertrand Traore scored a stoppage time penalty as Burkina Faso claimed a 1-0 victory over Mauritania in their Africa Cup of Nations Group D clash at the Stade de la Paix in Bouake on Tuesday, writing a piece of history in the process.

It is the first ever win for the Burkinabe in their opening match of the African showpiece finals and came at the 13th attempt, handed to them when Aston Villa midfielder Traore stroked home his spot-kick after a foul by Mauritania captain Mohamed El Abd on Issa Kabore.

Burkina Faso dominated possession, but it was Mauritania who carved out the better chances, though they were denied by the excellent reflexes of goalkeeper Herve Koffi and will feel aggrieved not to have got something from the game having conceded in the 96th minute.

Burkina Faso head the pool with their three points after the first round of matches. Fancied Algeria were surprisingly held to a 1-1 draw by Angola on Monday.

In a Group E encounter, Namibia winger Deon Hotto scored in the 88th minute to hand them a shock 1-0 victory over Tunisia at the Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday and keep up the sequence of surprise results that have dominated the opening days of the tournament.

Hotto sneaked in at the back post to hand the southern African country, 87 places below Tunisia in the world rankings, a deserved win as they were markedly more enterprising and created the better chances at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium.

Namibia, competing in their fourth finals but who had never tasted a Cup of Nations finals victory previously, should have won by a more handsome margin but were let down by poor decision making.

Tunisia are the top seeds in the group but laboured through the game and their goalkeeper Bechir Ben Said make several key stops to deny Namibia captain Peter Shalulile.

Tunisia join Ghana as former winners who have lost their opening match at the tournament while Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt and Nigeria were all held in games they were expected to win.

Meanwhile Mali took advantage of an early let-off to beat South Africa 2-0 in the Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday and take the lead in Group E.

After Percy Tau missed a penalty for South Africa, Mali captain Hamari Traore broke the deadlock after an hour and Lassine Sinayoko added a second six minutes later to put the west Africans ahead of Namibia on goal difference in the standings.

Next up for Mali is a clash with Tunisia on Saturday night at 20:00 while Bafana Bafana meet Namibia 24 hours later needing a result to keep their knockout hopes alive.