South Africa make embarrassing exit

South Africa, who will host the 2010 World Cup, exited the African Nations Cup without a point or even a goal to their name following defeat to Zambia.

Chris Katongo – who plays his club football in South Africa with Jomo Cosmos - scored the only goal with a quarter of an hour left.

Bafana Bafana’s performance tonight and in the two other games leaves plenty of room for improvement before the World Cup arrives in four years’ time.

Zambia, like South Africa unable to progress whatever the result, looked the team likelier to score and skipper Elijah Tana headed against the crossbar from Felix Katongo’s corner from the right after 11 minutes.

However, the breakthrough did not arrive until the 75th minute.

Clive Hachilensa whipped in a cross from the right, Pierre Issa appeared to duck out of a chance to head clear and Katongo stretched to prod the ball in from close range.

Guinea claimed top spot in Group C after recording a 3-0 win over defending champions Tunisia.

The two nations had already booked their spots in the next phase of the competition after winning their opening two matches, and as such both coaches opted to make changes to their starting line-ups for the match.

But it was the new-look Guinea side who gelled much better, dominating throughout to record a deserved victory thanks to goals from Ousmane Bangoura, Pascal Feindouno and Kaba Diawara.

Tunisia were disappointing and a miserable evening was summed up in the final 10 minutes when Issam Mardassi was sent off for a foul.

Guinea took the lead through Bangoura in the 16th minute.

After flicking the ball out to Ibrahima Yattara, Bangoura raced into the box to pick up the return pass and drill a shot across Tunisia goalkeeper Hamdi Kasraoui and into the far corner of the net.

Guinea dominated the rest of the game and the inevitable second arrived in the 70th minute when Feindouno picked up a pass from midfield, shrugged off the challenge of his marker before placing a low shot into the bottom corner of the net from the edge of the box.

Kasraoui saved Tunisia from a bigger defeat but he could do little about Guinea’s third goal in injury-time as yet more inspired play by second-half substitute Feindouno gave Diawara the simplest of finishes.