{"id":7780,"date":"2012-02-09T01:48:58","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T23:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/wrapup-1-soccer-ivory-coast-to-meet-zambia-in-final\/"},"modified":"2012-02-09T01:48:58","modified_gmt":"2012-02-08T23:48:58","slug":"wrapup-1-soccer-ivory-coast-to-meet-zambia-in-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wrapup-1-soccer-ivory-coast-to-meet-zambia-in-final\/","title":{"rendered":"WRAPUP 1-Soccer-Ivory Coast to meet Zambia in final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Mark Gleeson<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">LIBREVILLE<\/span> Feb 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Top-ranked Ivory Coast lived<br \/>\nup to their billing by reaching the African Nations Cup final as<br \/>\nthe tournament delivered yet another surprise on Wednesday when<br \/>\nZambia also reached Sunday&#8217;s deciding match.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Wednesday&#8217;s semi-finals dished up only two goals but<br \/>\ncontinue the dramatic theme that has enlivened the continental<br \/>\nchampionship after several docile recent editions.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A breathtaking breakaway goal from Gervinho secure the<br \/>\nexpected win for Ivory Coast, the highest world-ranked side in<br \/>\nAfrican football, over Mali in Libreville but Zambia&#8217;s 1-0<br \/>\nvictory over Ghana in Bata, Equatorial Guinea added to the list<br \/>\nof shocks at the three-week tournament.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Emmanuel Mayuka struck just 12 minutes from time to<br \/>\neliminate the highly fancied Black Stars and extend now to more<br \/>\nthan 30 years Ghana&#8217;s wait for a Nations Cup title.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Zambia scored against the run of play when halftime<br \/>\nsubstitute Mayuka, 21, received the ball with his back to goal.<br \/>\nHe controlled it with his first touch then swung and sent a shot<br \/>\ncurling past Adam Kwarasey and in off the foot of the post for<br \/>\nhis third goal of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I had to ball, I saw the defender backing off a little<br \/>\nbit and then I just said to myself take a shot,&#8221; Mayuka told<br \/>\nreporters.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And then I just said to myself thank you God and I knew<br \/>\nthis was our day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It was a fine finish but bettered in quality later by<br \/>\nGervinho, who flicked the ball past Mali defender Ousmane Berthe<br \/>\nwith a deft back heel and sprinted 30 metres into the penalty<br \/>\narea to score just before halftime<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mark Gleeson LIBREVILLE Feb 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Top-ranked Ivory Coast lived up to their billing by reaching the African Nations Cup final as the tournament delivered yet another surprise on Wednesday when Zambia also reached Sunday&#8217;s deciding match. Wednesday&#8217;s semi-finals dished up only two goals but continue the dramatic theme that has enlivened the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-7780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}