Late goals give Tunisia and South Africa draws

Elrio van Heerden scored for South Africa three minutes from the end to equalize Manucho's earlier strike for Angola, while Mejdi Traoui gave Tunisia a 2-2 against Senegal in the 83rd minute.

 Moustapha Bayal and Diomansy Kamara scored for Senegal, while Issam Jomaa scored the other goal for the 2004 champions.

 In the late game South Africa dominated the opening spell but failed to capitalize on their chances.

 Instead, the Palencas Negras took the lead in the 29th minute with an excellent diving header by recent Manchester United signing Manucho.

 The striker, who is still awaiting a work permit for his move to the Premership, was found in the area by a pinpoint cross from Flavio and gave South African goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs no chance.

 South Africa should have drawn level within a minute after going behind when Angolan custodian Lama completely missed a cross but Sibusiso Zuma's header went past the upright.

 South African coach Carlos Albrto Parreira brought on offensive players Lerato Chabangu and Thembinkosi Fanteni for the second half, but it made little difference as the South African forward line failed to create any real chances.

 Bafana had the ball in the back of the net eight minutes from the end through captain Aaron Mokoena, but the referee ruled that an infringement had taken place first.

 They were finally rewarded for their efforts three minutes from the end as another substitute in Elrio van Heerden snatched a dramatic late goal to level matters.

 It was South Africa's first goal at the African Nations Cup since 2004, when they scored in their final group game against Morocco. Since then, they had gone without a goal in 418 minutes at the tournament.

 Zuma said that the team had always believed they could come back into the match. "We knew that we could score and we grew in confidence. The Angola side was very strong, but we kept on going at them and we were rewarded in the end."

   Earlier, some 12,000 spectators in the 20,000-seater Tamale Stadium saw Tunisia and Senegal play offensive football from the first whistle.

 However, it was Tunisia who drew first blood in the ninth minute when Wissam El Bekri flicked the ball to Jomaa and the Caen player, who was the top scorer in the qualifying rounds, made no mistake with an excellent finish.

 The 2002 World Cup quarter-finalists were unlucky not to draw level midway through the first half through Mamadou Niang, who turned his marker and unleashed a powerful shot that skimmed agonizingly close past the post.

 Senegal came back into the match with the final kick of the first half after a dreadful mistake by Tunisian captain Radhi Jaidi, whose half-hearted attempt at a clearance fell to the feet of Bayal. His shot gave Hamdi Kasraoui in goals for Tunisia no chance.

 The West Africans nearly went ahead 22 seconds after the restart when El Hadji Diouf stormed down on Kasraoui, but pushed his shot just wide.

 Just three minutes later the Bolton striker sent through Kamara, but the Fulham player rather selfishly elected to shoot himself when Niang was free.

 Kamara made amends in the 65th minute after a goalkeeping error gifted the Senegalese a corner, which the Tunisian defenders failed to clear.

 The ball fell to Kamara, who gave a diving Kasraoui no chance from close range.

 The goal seemed to lift the Senegalese spirits even further as they went in search of the winner, but Niang and Hadji missed good chances.

 Instead of Senegal scoring another, it was Traoui who found an unexpected equalizer in the 83rd minute with a stunning effort from well outside the area.

 Senegal coach Henri Kasperczak rued his side's missed chances. "We conceded an early goal, which always makes it hard, and we didn't play to our potential.

 "I would say it is a fair result, even though we had chances with Mamadou Niang and Diomansy in the second half. Unfortunately, we couldn't take those and they scored with a very good shot."

   His Tunisian counterpart Roger Lemerre stormed out of the press conference without saying anything as journalists were shouting at each other.

By DB Peters, dpa