Emmanuel Adebayor scored in the first half to help Togo defeat Algeria 2-0 and retain a chance of reaching the second round of the African Cup of Nations on Saturday.
Adebayor netted in the 32nd minute and substitute midfielder Dove Wome added another in stoppage time to seal the victory, which eliminated Algeria and secured Ivory Coast a berth in the quarterfinals. The Elephants beat Tunisia 3-0 in the early Group D match.
Ivory Coast has six points, while Togo and Tunisia have three each before they face each other in the final group match on Wednesday.
The match at Royal Bafokeng Stadium had to be stopped for 15 minutes after the 86th because the goalpost tilted backward after an Algeria player ran into the back of the net. Nearly 10 people worked to try to fix it and eventually the woodwork had to be removed and reinstalled.
''It was one of the hardest games we played so far, we faced a very good Algeria team,'' Togo coach Didier Six said. ''We had the ambition to win and we deserved the victory.''
Adebayor netted the winner in a breakaway after receiving the ball in front of the defenders and sending a low right-footed shot past the goalkeeper. Wome scored after the stoppage to fix the net, receiving a long pass from midfield and entering the area before firing a shot underneath the charging Algerian goalkeeper.
''I'm extremely happy,'' Adebayor said. ''We knew that we needed to win this game to be able to advance and we dominated from the start.''
Adebayor had been the best player for Togo in the opener and again proved important on Saturday. The Tottenham striker threatened not to play at the tournament because of security concerns and disagreements with Togo's federation over bonus payments for players, but eventually decided to join his teammates.
''We have had some hard times and Togolese football still has some issues to resolve. Somebody had to take the lead and I did that as the captain,'' Adebayor said. ''Now things are back to normal and I hope that it will continue like this. It shows that if everybody is united we can be successful.''
Togo played well in the opener against Ivory Coast but allowed Gervinho's winner in the 88th minute.
Algeria also was coming of a disappointing defeat. It outplayed Tunisia from the start but lost after allowing a long-range goal in the first minute of injury time.
''What can I say, today was disastrous,'' Algeria coach Vahid Halilhodzic said. ''I really don't know what happened. We built a team to win. It's a team with a bright future but there is still a lot of work to do. I feel deeply ashamed. It's hard to analyze. We didn't play very good football.''
On Saturday, the complaints were with the officiating crew. The Algerians were upset with two alleged missed penalty calls, one on Sofiane Feghouli in the 47th and another in the 57th on Islam Slimani, who apparently was brought down as he prepared to shoot from close range.
The entire Algerian bench complained, and Halilhodzic entered the pitch briefly and kicked the ball toward Madagascar referee Hamada Nampiandraza, who was surrounded by Algeria players and apparently didn't see the coach kicking the ball.
''We had two clear penalties that were not given, the players were not too happy about that,'' Halilhodzic said. ''But we cannot blame anybody. We had opportunities to score but we did not convert on them. I really do feel deep shame and I take responsibility for what happened today. We are going to sit down and think about the future of Algeria football.''
Slimani had a great scoring chance in the first half when he controlled the ball with only the goalkeeper to beat inside the area, but aimed it right in the middle for an easy save.
Algeria, the 1990 African champion, entered the tournament as the second-best ranked team, behind Ivory Coast.
It did not play in last year's tournament but brought a revamped team to South Africa. Under the command of experienced Bosnian coach Halilhodzic, it won eight matches and lost only one heading into the African Cup. It was 19th in FIFA's world rankings in December, the best ever for the team. It is currently 22nd.
---
Follow Tales Azzoni at http://twitter.com/tazzoni
