Courtesy: Afrique en ligne

4th African Futsal contest enters day 3

Tripoli, Libya - The fourth African Futsal - the five-a-side indoor versi on of football - Championships, holding in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, entered t he third day Sunday with four matches slated in groups one and two.

In the day's matches, Tunisia will take on Cameroon; Angola plays Egypt; Morocco meets hosts Libya and South Africa takes the field against Mozambique.

In the second round of matches Saturday, Cameroon drew 3-3 with Nigeria. Cameroo n was cruising to what would have been their first victory with a 3-2 lead until Liyu Usman delivered a killer strike on the stroke of full time to salvage a poi n t for Nigeria.

A disappointed Cameroonian coach Epee Louis Renee expressed disappointment with the result, adding that his side was tactically and technically superior to the Nigerians.

"We lost everything just within a spate of a second of loss of concentration. Bu t we will fight hard to get the needed result in our next games," he said.

The Nigerians have been struggling in the competition since they lost their open ing game 4-0 to hosts Libya who also Saturday beat Tunisia 4-2 to go top of group one.

In group two, defending champions Egypt humiliated South Africa 8-4 in Cortuba a nd look set to clinch an unprecedented fourth Africa title, having beaten Zambia 9-0 in the opening game Friday.

For the South Africans, It was their second successive defeat, after losing 8-4 to Angola Friday.

Mozambique walloped Zambia 9-2 to brighten their chances of a next-round berth. The free-scoring Mozambicans are now tied on the same points with Egypt after th e two wins athough the defending champions have a superior goals difference.

Zambia, who are yet to find their feet having conceded 18 goals in two outings and are far from making it to the next round.

Giants Morocco launched their campaign for the title with an emphatic 5-0 win over Tunisia.

The first two teams from the African competition will represent the continent at the World Cup in Brazil.

The African championship got off Friday to a colourful opening ceremony filled w ith rich African cultural display at the African Union Hall here.

The event which lasted about two hours was packed with entertainment shows which left the thousands of fans at the Sports Hall on their feet for the duration of the ceremony.

Cultural groups, made up of boys, girls, men and women, performed several Africa n dances with the peak of the night being the parade of the flags of the 10 part i cipating countries in addition to those of Confederation of African Football (CA F ) and Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA).

The logo of the 21-30 March tournament was also unveiled during the opening ceremony.

Officials who graced the occasion included the Libyan leader Mohamed Kadhafi, President of Libyan Olympic Committee Board, Saidi Abdulsalam, the Chief Executive

Officer of Futsal, Ambassadors of participating countries and some Football Association Presidents.

The 10 participating countries are Angola, Cameroon, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Moza mbique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia.






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com